FUNERAL HOMILY FOR Bill Dorsel

A friend once came to Rabbi Harold Kushner, author of the book, ‘When Bad Things Happen to Good People’, and said to him: "Two weeks ago, for the first time in my life, I went to the funeral of a man my own age. I didn't know him well, but we worked together, talked to each other from time to time, and had kids about the same age. He died suddenly over the weekend. A bunch of us went to the funeral, each of us thinking, "It could just as easily have been me."

That was two weeks ago. They have already replaced him at the office. I hear his wife is moving out of state to live with her parents. Two weeks ago, he was working fifty feet away from me, and now it's as if he never existed.

It's like a rock falling into a pool of water. For a few seconds, it makes ripples in the water, and then the water is the same as it was before, but the rock isn't there anymore.

Rabbi, I've hardly slept at all since then. I can't stop thinking that it could happen to me, that one day it will happen to me, and a few days later, I will be forgotten as if I had never lived. Shouldn't a man's life be more than that?"

This man had just experienced a wake-up call! For all of us, there are times like that when we are brought up short, and we are left thinking disturbing questions like, "Shouldn't a man's life be more than that?" Yes, if our life is going to end here, it should be a disturbing question. But we Christians have an assuring word from Jesus, who came back from death and told us to prepare to go where he is, where he is going. Jesus said:

Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me. So, we are going to a better place to see the glory, divine glory. This glory is the reward that he promises for our faithful life in union with him here on earth. Some people doubt the rationality behind life after this life/death. It is said that there are three stages to our human life. The first stage is the inactive stage, when our organs are developed for the second stage, the active stage of life. And then the second stage prepares for the third stage when one receives the rewards for the virtues or sins of one’s life.

Our first stage is our nine-month life in the womb of our mother. A baby’s life in the womb says it is not meant to live there forever. A baby in the uterus has eyes. But it does not need the eyes; it cannot see. It has feet, but it does not need to walk there. It has hands but does not need to grab anything. It has lungs but does not need to breathe through the nose. All the organs of a baby in the uterus except its umbilical cord are not helpful for the baby in the womb. They are meant for their life after that stage. But the unborn baby does not understand it.  

The second stage in our active life.  Two kinds of actions and their results are accrued from there, good deeds and some bad. Our moral sense tells us that a good person should get a good reward, a person who does bad deeds should get punishment, and an innocent person needs to be given justice.

We do not see that fully happening here in this life. Let’s imagine two scenarios here in this context.

A person sees a house on fire, and he jumps to save the dying person inside the house. In the process, he gets killed along with the man in the burning house. His death is not a reward for his trying to save that man. He should get a reward. Where is he going to get it?

Let’s imagine another situation where a man goes stealing, and in the process of running to save from being caught, he falls in a well and dies.

The thief died, but that is not his reward or punishment. Because everyone dies. He needs to get punished. So, there is a reward awaiting for both these people.

It tells us that we have a stage coming as a stage of enjoying the fruits of one’s actions done in this world. Without that stage of existence, our moral sense gets wounded, feel grieved by this existence. In such a situation, we can lament with the book of Sirach that vanity of vanities, everything is vanity. Those who have faith know that their master promises reward for the good living here. That reward is glory with the Father.

Bill lived in this world believing in the promise of our Saviour. Paul said in the first reading today that the One who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us with you in his presence. Being with Jesus is our reward. Once, he said to those who believed in him that he was coming back and would take them to himself.

Jesus said I am the way, the truth and the Life; whoever believes in me will rise to eternal life.

Christians celebrate the funeral rites to offer worship, praise, and thanksgiving to God for the gift of a life which has now been returned to God, the author of life and the hope of the just. The Mass, the memorial of Christ's death and resurrection, is the principal celebration of the Christian funeral. Therefore, we do that for Bill today.

The Christians, particularly the Catholics, pray for the dead, believing that the dead will go through a stage called purgatory, where even the smallest vestiges of sins are to be cleansed before entering the presence of God. Because nothing unholy can enter presence of God. When St.Bernadette of Lourdes was dying, she was afraid that people would think she was holy. She asked the sisters around her, ‘Pray for me when I am dead. People will say, “That little saint doesn’t need prayers, and I will be left in purgatory.” If a living saint felt that way, how much more do we really know from the core of our hearts that we need real cleansing? Of course, no one in purgatory is forgotten or abandoned. The souls in purgatory are remembered and prayed for at every Mass every day. “Remember our brothers and sisters who have gone to their rest in the hope of rising again. Bring them into the light of your presence.”

We need to grow in love. Purgatory is where we go through the final purification that frees us to love and makes us ready to experience the joy of God’s presence in heaven. The English Dominican Fr. Bede Jarrett describes it this way: We must not think that our dead are in anguish. No doubt they are restless and eager for their release, but only as a lover might be restless who did not find himself fit to meet his beloved. So, let this celebration of the life of Bill Dorsel today help him hasten his way to the complete vision of God for which he was created and called to eternal rest.