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Funeral
Mass for Jack Wright
Lamentations
3:17-26, Romans 5:5-11, Luke 24:13-16, 28-35
Our
Lady of Grace
March
9, 2018
Jack:
Minister and Disciple of Jesus
By
(Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
Condolences
To Jack, Pam, Michael, and
Hillary, to their spouses, to his 4 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren, we
offer you our heartfelt condolences over the passing of your father,
grandfather.
Our very gathering with you
around the Eucharist is something that would have made him very happy.
Eucharist: More
Than Coincidence
Back in 1995, Jack was to be the
first person I would meet with from Our Lady of Grace. I had not yet begun or
even visited the parish.
As the pastor designate, I called
Rose LaFond, the parish secretary, for names of parishioners who were sick in
hospital so I could visit and bring them communion. Jack was on her list, just
recovering from heart surgery.
At the hospital, we had a great
conversation and he spoke of his love for the Eucharist and his ministry, where
he was in charge of some 40 Eucharistic Minsters. He was clear; he wanted more
reverence for the Sacrament. He wanted greater connection between the minister distributing
communion and the individual receiving.
Let’s fast forward 18 years to just
before this past Christmas. As I said, he was the first person I would meet
from the parish, and the last time I visited, we again focused on the Eucharist.
What a joy it was to celebrate Mass in his apartment with Elaine Hagner the
week before Christmas.
It seems like more than a
coincidence that the two visits those 18 years apart served as bookends to our
relationship and that they had the same focus to them — the Eucharist.
The
Disciples Becoming Eucharist
Today’s Gospel tells of the walk
two followers of Jesus have with a seeming stranger.
They are disillusioned,
disheartened, a bit despondent. Yet, as they walk with the stranger and recall
the scriptures, they enter into a relationship that brings them comfort and
assurance, so much so that they ask the stranger to dine with them when they
arrive at their destination after the long journey.
He goes in with them and, as they
break bread together, he suddenly disappears from their sight. The stranger is
Jesus himself.
The two previously disillusioned
disciples are quickened, excited, transformed by the interchange and the
breaking of the bread, and so much so, they pick themselves up and make the
long trek, in spite of their fatigue, back to Jerusalem to tell the others.
Clearly, they have become more
than disillusioned followers of a dead savior. They have become his very
presence to others, as they make their way back to testify to his presence.
From the Emmaus story we see that
the Eucharist is the gift of Jesus of himself to his followers. It is a gift of
grace, of life, of energy and of testimony.
Through the sharing of scripture
and the breaking of bread, and then the disappearance of Jesus himself, it is
clear that these two are to become the very savior they have consumed.
Yes, by returning quickly to
Jerusalem, they have become Christ himself to others.
Jack’s
Becoming Eucharist
The walk to Emmaus is an
appropriate Gospel for Jack’s passing to the other side of life, for like the
two disciples he too was a follower of Jesus. He too was nurtured on the
Eucharist. He too testified to the Lord’s presence to his family and friends.
Jack did that testifying with his
great sense of welcome and hospitality. He did it with wonderful dinners and
gatherings around a dining room table. He did it with an unparalleled
commitment to ministry to us the people of Our Lady of Grace.
Scripture, Eucharist, and service
to his family and community summed up his
Emmaus walk. Like the two disciples, he became the Eucharist for others and we
are a testimony to that today.
His Struggles
Physically and Spiritually
But lest anyone think it was all joy
and celebration for Jack, those of us who continued to see him after he left
OLG 10 years ago know that Jack entered what seemed to be a dark and painful struggle,
both physically and spiritually.
In visiting him each year at Glen Meadows
Retirement Community, Jack shared the fears and trepidation of his inner
struggle with me. (1) It was the physical struggle of pain and suffering. (2) It
was the spiritual struggle of knowing he was a sinner and also a beloved
disciple of Jesus.
How to resolve the dilemma of his pain and
suffering came in keeping his eyes fixed on Jesus, and as St. Paul’s letter to
the Colossians (1:23-25) states, “Knowing
that he was filling up in his own flesh what is still lacking in regard to
Christ’s afflictions for the sake of Christ’s body, the church.”
And then there was the paradox of being both a sinner
and a beloved disciple of Jesus. It seems that no one is exempt from this
paradox, including St. Peter. (Hand gestures)
We see this same paradox existing in the writer
of the Book of Lamentations. He says: “My soul is deprived of peace, I have forgotten what happiness
is; I tell myself my future is lost, all that I hoped for from the Lord.”
And then midway through the passage there’s a shift in
mood and color, as the writer continues: “But
I will call this to mind, as my reason to have hope: The favors of the Lord are
not exhausted, his mercies are not spent. They are renewed each morning, so
great is his faithfulness. My portion is the Lord, says my soul; therefore,
will I hope in him.”
Conclusion
(1) With Jesus as his model in suffering and (2) placing
his hope
in the Lord when confronted by the paradox of being both saint and
sinner, was a lesson Jack come to learn these last years.
His love for the Eucharist gave him the grace and presence of
Jesus (1) to bear his suffering and (2) to hope in the Lord.
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