Conducting another train

Today, we celebrated a funeral for one of the parishioners who was known and loved by many.  He has been infirmed for a number of years, but despite his physical absence from our weekly assemblies, he has not been forgotten.

Funeral homily for André Rioux

We have come to this place today to pray for our brother André.  This moment of prayer is both a time for remembering the good that we have known throughout the years that God has granted us to share with him, and a time for looking forward to the ways in which we will use the wisdom we have learned from him to better our own lives.

André and his wife Jeanine lived for many years in Chapleau.  It was there that they raised their two children: Jocelynne and Gerald.  During this period of his life, André worked for many years with C.P. Rail.  A dedicated employee, he was also a loving father, who together with his wife raised two wonderful children and taught them everything they could about living life to the fullest, about the value of an honest day’s work, and about the great gift of our faith.  When André retired, he and Jeanine moved to North Bay and they began attending this parish.  It wasn’t long before they too caught the Spirit of Saint Peter’s and began making friends here and sharing their talents and gifts with this community.  A few years ago, when Jeanine died, it was this community that helped André and his family to face the pain of their loss and to remember the good news that we all carry within us: Jesus Christ is risen from the dead (2 Tim 2:8).  This is the truth that each of us has come to know. 

The true strength of our faith, the reason why we are gathered here today, is the fact that Jesus Christ suffered and died … and then he rose from the dead.  Because Jesus rose from the dead, we have the gift of hope, and hope is the gift which made it possible for Saint Paul to say to Timothy, his disciple in faith: if we have died with Christ, then we shall live with him; if we hold firm, then we shall reign with him (2 Tim 2:11-12).  Hope is the gift that André saw every day in the eyes of his beloved wife; hope is the gift he saw in the eyes of his children and his grandchildren, and in the eyes of each one of the children who rode the Heritage Railway, a cause to which he was dedicated for many years. Hope is the gift he witnessed in the eyes of every one of the clients who came into the soup kitchen.  Hope is the virtue that made it possible for him to continue giving of his time in so many ways. 

Even in his latter years, when a stroke made it no longer possible for him to volunteer his time, when his physical mobility was limited and he was figuratively nailed to a cross beside Jesus, he did not lose hope.  In moments of human weakness, we might be tempted to respond to such trials with the words that were spoken by one of the voices that day: If you are the Christ, save yourself and us as well (Lk 23:39), but although he may have asked such a question at another moment, André asked only one thing of Jesus: remember me when you come into your kingdom (Lk 23:42).  These are the words of one who has truly come to know how much he is loved – the words of a man of faith who has known his share of successes and failures, trials and tribulations – the words of one who knows that when all is said and done, Jesus Christ rose from the dead, and if Christ rose from the dead, so will we.

In this life, André truly knew the gift of love, made known to him in the relationships he shared with co-workers, with friends and most especially with the members of his family: his wife, his children and his beloved grandchildren.  Today we rejoice with him because now that his earthly journey is complete, he is able to experience a still deeper meaning of love as he sits at the banquet table in heaven: a banquet of rich food (Is 25:6), a banquet of spending eternity in the company of those he loves and those who love him, a banquet that awaits us all, a banquet that we too will share when our journey is complete.  That day, it will be said: See, this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation … we exult and rejoice that he has saved us.