Tower Topics ~ Summer 2001

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Words of faith

There is one sentence in the vast language of Catholic tradition that has always captivated my mind with the eloquence of poetry.

Perhaps it’s because each time I’ve heard it has been a time of raw emotion and sadness. Perhaps it’s because its utterance always comes when I am in comfortable solidarity with family and close friends.

I heard it again March 26, the feast day of the Annunciation of Jesus. We had gathered in St. Columba Church in nearby Conception Jct., Mo. – family, friends and what seemed like every other person in a 40-mile radius of the church. Extra chairs lined the aisles and the church hall was opened to handle the overflow crowd. My Uncle Jim was gone far too soon and far too suddenly. It took only seven weeks from the time that the cancer was discovered. Now, a community and a family joined to bid farewell.

Small-town life and Catholicism are at their purest at a funeral. Life’s travails, petty differences, worries – in grief they all melt away. Prayer, generosity and kindness are on each person’s mind. Despite the obvious pain, there are few times in life when so many people are so focused, with such simplicity, on someone other than themselves. It’s ironic that one of life’s most difficult times – the funeral of someone I love – is when I feel most optimistic about human nature.

This was Jim’s day. There were many tears, and of course with anything that involves my uncle, much laughter. Through all the eulogies and a beautiful homily by Father Daniel Petsche, one message was clear and succinct. Jim was a very good man, admired by many.

As the funeral Mass concluded, even though I’ve heard it hundreds of times before, my breath caught in my chest when those final words of poetry were chanted:

“Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let the perpetual light shine upon him.”

Dan Madden

Director of Communications

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