Beginning her spirit journey

One of our elders, a woman of great wisdom and faith has now entered into the Father's house.  May the great Spirit grant her the gift of eternal repose.

Funeral homily for Evelyn Avery

When we began this liturgy at the doors of the church, we welcomed Evelyn’s body and we sprinkled her casket with holy water: a reminder of the day on which she was baptized and began her life in faith.   She has walked this faith journey for the past 94 years, and now as she has begun her spirit journey, we gather here with her beloved children, grand-children, great-grand-children and her siblings to commend her eternal soul into the loving arms of God.

Throughout her long life, Evelyn had many occasions to celebrate: the day she married Charlie; the births of each of her children, and subsequently, her grandchildren and most recently her great-grandchildren (how she loved spending time surrounded by the little ones).  In each one of her family members and in the hearts of all those who were privileged to learn from her, she planted the seeds of wisdom (cf Ecc 3:2).  Even though she endured many hardships, including the death of her beloved husband, she never stopped embracing life (cf Ecc 3:5), learning from every experience and storing up all that wisdom to be shared with those she loved.

She was proud of her heritage and kept the Annishinabe language alive.  Knowing and celebrating our roots was important to her, and we too should thank God today for the opportunity we have been granted to spend so much time with her, to benefit from her lived experience, to learn the valuable lessons of cherishing the great gift of family and of being stubbornly insistent on passing on the best parts of ourselves for the benefit of others who will come after us.

Evelyn passed on these treasures through storytelling, and that is what we are doing today: re-telling the story that is our common heritage in faith.  Ours is the story of a man named Jesus, a man who came from heaven in order to love those who were close to him: the ones the Father had given to him (Jn 17:24) to share his journey.  His greatest desire was that those he loved could one day be with him in paradise.  He had told them about his Father, and about the love the Father has for all his children.  We who are gathered here today are also God’s beloved children.  On the day our baptism, we began our lives in faith: the journey that will eventually lead us all to the place where we will be united once again with our brother Jesus, with Evelyn and with every one of those who has shared this journey with us.

Saint Paul explains this mystery by telling us that we have been baptized into Christ’s death … buried with him … so that just as Christ was raised from the dead … we too will walk in the newness of life (Rom 6:3-4).  Today we celebrate the beginning of Evelyn’s new life.  We give thanks to God the Father for all that we have known and loved and celebrated with her.  We give thanks for all that we have learned from her, and for the gift that has now been entrusted to us: to be the carriers of this wisdom, called to share the great joy and certainty of our faith with those we meet, by kindling within us the light of hope that guides us until the day that we ourselves will begin our own spirit journeys and enter into the heavenly home of the Father who loves us, cares for us and provides for every one of our needs.