Friday, July 20, 2018

A truly happy heart

Here is the text of the homily I prepared for the funeral we celebrated earlier today.  At moments such as these, we are reminded that earthly life is finite but we look forward to everlasting life and death is nothing but a door through which we must pass.


Funeral homily for Theresa Carriere

There are some moments in life that are unforgettable.  There are some moments in life that we never want to forget.  There are some moments in life when we need to stop, look around us and realize that something significant is happening.  This is one of those moments.

Members of this parish family have gathered here, along with members of Theresa’s immediate family in order to do what all of God’s beloved children do when one of our loved ones completes his or her earthly journey.  We have come to commend the eternal soul of our sister into the loving arms of our God.  We gather to pray and to listen again to the words that the Lord Jesus spoke to his disciples at another time in history when they too had learned that his time among them was short.  Jesus told them: Do not let your hearts be troubled (Jn 14:1) and he also told them: trust in God, and trust in me.

During the time that he had spent with his disciples, Jesus spoke with them on many occasions about his Father, about the Father’s love for them.  Now that the time had come for Jesus to return to the Father, he needed to remind the disciples that there are many rooms in the Father’s house (Jn 14:2): room for all of God’s children.

Throughout her many years, Theresa heard these words read again and again.  She also experienced the great gift of knowing Jesus, and of building relationships with her parents, her sister and with many others who helped her to discover the gift of a heart that is not troubled but rather a heart that is truly happy.  When we have known the gift of a happy heart, we can begin to trust ... and this is the true key to enduring happiness.

In time, Theresa taught this truth to others: to the people who had the great privilege of being part of her immediate family and to those who had the joy of knowing her as a friend, and those who shared the bonds of being part of Theresa’s family of faith too.  As Saint Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome, everyone moved by the Spirit is a child of God (Rom 8:14).  We have all been given the spirit of children and together, we look toward our heavenly Father on this day and cry out to him: Abba, daddy, Father! (Rom 8:15), take our beloved sister Theresa to heaven as you have promised.  Now that her place has been prepared, so that where you are, she may be too (Jn 14:3).

How many times have people sat with Theresa around a table, broken bread, shared words and then continued the journey?  Now that her earthly journey is complete, we pray that she will be granted a place to sit at the Lord’s heavenly banquet table (cf Is 25:6).  She who fed so many in so many ways can now feast in the presence of God forever, and we who are saddened by the fact that we have been parted from her can take comfort in the knowledge that God, who knows our pain, is also very close to us wiping away the tears from our cheeks (Is 25:8), comforting us in his loving embrace and whispering gently into our ears: Don’t be worried about her now.  She is with me, waiting and watching over you until the day when you will see her again.

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