As I read over today’s readings and began to reflect on their meaning, asking God to help me to write this homily, I was also thinking of Mrs. Howley, the mother of my friend, Joe, who is preparing to go home to God.
In a sense, yesterday afternoon was a microcosm of what the prophet Daniel and the Gospel speak about—the finite nature of things and eternal life with Jesus. So often, we like to think that things will last forever, or at least through our lifetimes. But the reality is that even ordinary places like movie theaters and schools close and are torn down. Unfortunately, some of us have even experienced our local parish church closing, sometimes a parish that our families helped build with their own hands.
In this last week of Ordinary Time before Advent and then Christmas, we’re led by God to realize the transient nature of our lives on earth, but, also, the eternal life in heaven offered by God to each one of us.
Last night, as Joe and his brother, Matt, and their families gathered around Mrs. Howley’s bedside, we said the prayers of commendation beginning with the hope-filled verses: “Who can separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35) and “We have an everlasting home in heaven” (2 Corinthians 5:1). As we turned to God in that sacred moment, I shared with the Howleys their Mother and Grandmother’s faith in God and the Blessed Mother and how she had prepared for this moment by living her faith year after year, including two weeks ago when she received the Sacrament of the Sick.
The words of Psalm 23 reminded us that Jesus is our shepherd from life here on earth to heaven. We prayed the litany of the saints and asked for each holy one to pray for Mrs. Howley. We said a prayer of commendation, which included the words “Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father, who created you … in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, in the name of the Holy Spirit.” The prayer concludes: “May you live in peace this day, may your home be with God … with Mary, the virgin Mother of God, with Joseph, and all the angels and saints.” The words are hard to say, especially for someone we love, but it is the hope of every soul to be with God, and when our loved one’s time has come, that they may go to God and one day we may meet them again.
Two weeks ago, Mrs. Howley had told me of her love of the Blessed Mother, so we ended with a Hail Mary that filled the room: “Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death.” What a blessing to believe in our good God and share this faith with your family right up until your last day on earth.
May God bless Mrs. Howley, her family, and all families as each one of us trusts in God’s love to lead us to our eternal home with Him.
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