Funeral homily 1

On the eve of every battle, an old Greek officer was in the habit of giving this advise to
his men: The secret of victory is in getting good ready. Battles are won the day before.
The man who prepares and is attentive to the present moment is the man who wins, the
man who succeeds. Preparation is vital not only for a profession, for a trade and for a
career but also in receiving the life-giving sacraments and above all, on the day of our
own death.
As the end of our earthly pilgrimage, death involves an inescapable judgment which
leads to the definitive outcome of the persons life. Jesus indicated this with His parable
of the poor man Lazarus (Lk 16:22) and His promise to the good (repentant) thief: This
day you will be with me in paradise.
The Church teaches that those who have died in the state of grace are received
immediately into heaven, and see clearly God Himself, One and Three, as He is. While
those who die in actual mortal sin go to hell immediately.
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Faced with death, life might seem absurd and meaningless. But our Christian faith tells
us that despite death life is not absurd and meaningless. Life for each of us took on a
completely different meaning when our parents decided to have us baptized into the
Catholic Church. When we were baptized we became adopted sons and daughters of
God. When we were baptized this planet was no longer our home, then heaven became
our true homeland. When we were baptized we were no longer on our own, when we
were baptized we were joined with Jesus in leaving behind an old life and beginning a
new life.
When Jesus died he left his old life behind him. He rose from the dead, having left
behind life in a human body like ours. When we were baptized, we joined Jesus in his
dying, leaving behind our old self, and we joined Jesus in his resurrection, becoming
new persons. Part of Pauls letter to the Romans talks of this (Rom 6); When we were
baptized in Christ Jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were
baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was
raised from the dead by the Fathers glory, we too might live a new life. In every Mass
we remember that we share in Jesus death and resurrection, for example Dying you
destroyed our death, rising you restored our life. Lord by your cross and resurrection
you have set us free. You are the Savior of the world.
Because our entire life is living out our baptism, because we want to live our entire lives
in such a way that our baptism has a lasting effect on our lives, we are continually trying
to leave behind sin and selfishness to become better people.

When we respond at each moment of our lives to the call of God, we prepare ourselves
to enter into the Lords rest; As baptized we try to be aware of the presence of God in
each moment of our lives, like the sunflower that keeps following the sun all day long.
God is not just at the end of our life, waiting for us there; God is with us at every
moment of our lives. However in the final moment of our lives, we will see Gods love
and everlasting light. In this Eucharist we pray for Paddy that perpetual light may shine
upon him.
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Paul said in our second reading that our homeland is in heaven. We build houses for
ourselves. We decorate them. We become settled in life. Very few people like moving
around from one place to another. And yet despite the fact that we are so settled where
we are, Paul in our second reading says, that is still not home. For us, our homeland is
in heaven. We might think we are at home here, but if we have faith we can see beyond
the surface of life and we know that we have been created to know, love and serve God.
Josies death reminds us that the purpose of life is to know, love and serve God. We
believe there is more to life here than what meets the eye because when we were
baptized we became sons and daughters of God. In our second reading John said
Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us by letting us be called Gods
children; and that is what we are. It is of course astounding that God bestows his love
on us by allowing us to become his children through baptism. As Gods children since
baptism we believe that the purpose of life is knowing, loving and serving God,
preparing to meet him in heaven. As Gods children we believe that when we die, we go
on ahead and we call whats behind the remains. Thats why we have a donor card and
somebody else can use whatever parts may be useful. When we are buried, we are not
buried really. We are gone ahead. When the shuttle blasts off, booster rockets fall away
after a while. Our body is like a booster rocket which falls off after a while and we
continue our journey. The booster rocket falls down to earth again and our body returns
to clay again, but as children of God we are gone ahead. So during this Mass we thank
God that Josie was his adopted daughter and we ask God to gather Josie to himself.
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As children of God we have a glorious future because God in his goodness and
generosity wants to share his love and life with us. Again in our second reading John
said we are already children of God but what we are to be in the future has not yet
been revealed; all we know is that when it is revealed we shall be like him because we
shall see him as he really is. There is a gap between this life and the next. A caterpillar
could never tell how beautiful it would become as a butterfly with beautiful wings. The
unborn baby could never understand what a gap there is between life in the womb and
life in the world. How could an acorn recognize itself in the oak tree? So in this
Eucharist as well as praying for Josie we can also say thanks to God for that glorious
future that Josie is now beginning to enjoy.

Whatever type of body we will have in heaven nobody knows, except that it will be much
better than what we have now. Again in our second reading Paul said, the Lord Jesus
will transfigure these wretched bodies of ours into copies of his glorious body. Whatever
John is experiencing now, it is better than here. In case there is anything in his life that
still needs to be purified, we pray for him during this Mass. We ask God to reward him
for his goodness and transfigure him to enjoy his true homeland.
As we pray for Johanna today I would also like to remember her as a child of God, as a
daughter of God. We dont think often enough of each other as children of God. We can
get knocked about by others on our journey through life, disrespected or taken
advantage of and any time it happens it shatters our opinion of humanity. No matter
what others do to you, we must never forget our most beautiful calling, our calling as
sons and daughters of God which we received on the day we were baptized. Others
misjudge us but Gods judgment of us is that we are his sons and daughters. Once
again we remember the words of Jesus in our Gospel, In so far as you did this to one
of the least of these brothers of mine, you did it to me. So as we bury Johanna today
we remember her as a daughter of God. We heard in the reading from Rom 8, The
Spirit himself and our spirit bear united witness that we are children of God. And if we
are children we are heirs as well: heirs of God and coheirs with Christ, sharing his
sufferings so as to share his glory. Johanna, like all of us, is an heir of God; she will
inherit from God. What will she inherit from God? Once again in our reading we heard I
think that what we suffer in this life can never be compared to the glory, as yet
unrevealed, which is waiting for us. That is what she will inherit, the glory of the
resurrection.
We judge everything by value now and what it can produce. Sometimes you would hear
people talking about other people as being useful or no use. That is the most dreadful
thing, I think, that anybody can say about another person, to be of no use. Describing a
person like that is not the way of a follower of Jesus. A follower of Jesus knows that our
value is that we are sons and daughters of God, that we will inherit the glory of the
resurrection. Whether we are the best of athletes or handicapped, rearing a family at
home or working in the factory, we are sons and daughters of God. As I said we dont
think often enough of each other as sons and daughters of God.
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Praying for the Dead
We have gathered here not so much to talk about N. but to pray for him. We believe that
our prayer here can help Dermot where he is now. We know that prayer is powerful and
we believe that we can help the departed by praying for them. The best gift you can now
give to Dermot is to pray for him. There is no better gift you can now give Dermot. There
is nothing that you could now do that would be more helpful and beneficial to him than
praying for him. When we lay a wreath in someones honor the flowers will wither but

the prayers we offer for someone will never wither. If you say just one Hail Mary for N.
it will last into eternity. Prayer has lasting value.
That reminds me of many things we do during life. We do many things during life that in
a sense, in the light of eternity, are a waste of time. What really matters in life is putting
God first. Jesus said in our Gospel that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life and if we
are not living our lives in union with Jesus then we are not on the way and if we are not
on the way we are lost. On one occasion Jesus said, Seek the kingdom of God first
and all these other things will be given you as well. When we do that, when we seek
the kingdom of God first, love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and
strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, then we are on the way, and not wasting our
time.
As we pray for N. during this Mass it is good remember that the Mass is the greatest
prayer for the dead. St. Malachy didnt get on with his sister, lost contact with her and
didnt see her any more before she died. After she died, he heard a voice one night
telling him that his sister was hungry, she hadnt eaten for thirty days. He remembered it
was thirty days since he had offered Mass for her. He began to offer Mass for her again,
saw her coming up to the door of the church, but she couldnt enter and was wearing a
black garment. He continued to say Mass for her and the next time she was dressed in
a lighter garment and the final time he saw her she was dressed entirely in white
surrounded by blessed spirits. This incident in the life of St. Malachy shows us the
importance of praying for the dead. (above story taken from Healing the Greatest Hurt
pages 54-55 by Matthew and Denis Linn and Sheila Fabricant, published 1985 by
Paulist Press and used by permission of the publishers.)