Always in God's Hands - May He Rest in Peace!

Wisdom 4: 7-15

The just man, though he die early, shall be at rest. For the age that is honorable comes not with the passing of time, nor can it be measured in terms of years. Rather, understanding is the hoary crown of men, and an unsullied life, the attainment of old age. He who pleased God was loved; he who lived among sinners was transported – Snatched away, lest wickedness pervert his mind or deceit beguile his soul; For the witchery of paltry things obscures what is right and the whirl of desire transforms the innocent mind. Having become perfect in a short while, he reached the fullness of a long career; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he sped him out of the midst of wickedness. But the people saw and did not understand, nor did they take this into account.

Luke 9: 23-26

Jesus said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself? Whoever is shamed of me and of my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.”

Funeral Homily

for

Robert Louis Gullickson

Wisdom 4: 7-15

Luke 9: 23-26

Praised be Jesus Christ!

        I am very proud of my brother, Robert. We spoke on Skype maybe a week before he died. Of course, we spoke about his awareness that with all the medical help in the world he was not going to beat the infection that had taken hold of his body. We spoke of his hope for heaven and seeing our parents and David, who had preceded him in death. We spoke about his sufferings and hopes not to have too hard of a time dying. Most of all, though, for me, he told me about his clear understanding and conviction that satisfaction from accomplishment or achievement in this life is not to be had.

Bob’s insight was much more than saying that human accomplishment is not what life is about. As an example of constructive and almost impressive achievement, I am thinking, just by way of example, of that Japanese guy with the long white hair and beard, the multi-millionaire on the internet, you know: the one over 70 with a young athlete’s body and energy, who invented that samurai pillow which is giving everyone a great night’s sleep? Anyway! Robert was saying much more to me than that measurable success and material flourishing is not to be envied or sought after.

        You see, the best among us (we will call them God’s own, His children) do not really have to care about wealth or fame. Truly good people think and act otherwise than do people of this world; the great ones in the Kingdom just keep hoping they can be of service to others. They seek to bring light and joy to the lives of others and to cherish that kind of mutual love, which is born not just of respect, but rather of a genuine, reverential fear standing or kneeling there before the dignity of that other woman, man or child born and living in the image and likeness of God.

        We firmly believe in the life of the world to come.

“For the witchery of paltry things obscures what is right and the whirl of desire transforms the innocent mind. Having become perfect in a short while, he reached the fullness of a long career; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he sped him out of the midst of wickedness.”

        Robert told me that he understood that it was folly to think we are the achievers even in terms of doing good. He thought that maybe he had been too anxious about wanting to do right by the good people here at Catholic Care, to contribute somehow to the life of this house. He confessed to me his firm conviction that it is indeed the Lord Jesus, Who is in charge and from end to end.

“The just man, though he die early, shall be at rest. For the age that is honorable comes not with the passing of time, nor can it be measured in terms of years.”

        If you think about life that way, it is easier to embrace the Catholic teaching about Purgatory. Maybe then, we can better understand what kind of people we must not be in order to enter into God, in order to rest with Lazarus on Abraham’s bosom, as Jesus in the Gospel parable tells us. St. John Climacus (born: 579 AD in Syria and died: 649 AD in Jabal Mousa, Egypt) in his book, “The Ladder of Divine Ascent”, gives a wrenching description of a monastic prison, where sinner monks placed themselves freely in hopes of that purification through penance which could speed them on their way to heaven. Frankly, I had a very hard time with John Climacus, just as some people seem to have difficulty with the Church’s teaching on Purgatory. But our lack of insight, our shortcomings do not make the truth anything less than what it is.

        What is secularization, what is the crisis of culture in our world, if not the failure or inability to see ourselves already in God or going into Him? What is that crisis of faith that has many people skeptical or doubting the Lordship of Jesus? Is it not the inability to live the truth, maybe for lack of a faithful upbringing, for some trauma from outside ourselves or because of a crisis brought on by our own sin?

        None of us knows any better than did Robert as he prepared for death just where we stand with God. We need to focus more decidedly on Him Who is the be-all and the end-all. As Jesus in the Gospel today exhorts: “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.”

        Nine hundred years after St. John Climacus, Saint Catherine of Genoa, in her Treatise on Purgatory, speaks of her boundless hope and joy at the prospect of coming to see the Lord face to face at the end of her unspeakable sufferings in Purgatory. Please, I beg you, pray for the repose of Robert’s soul. May he rest with Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham, in expectation of that great day when the Terrible Judge will call him along with all who have been found worthy: “Come, ye blessed of my Father, into the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world!”

“Having become perfect in a short while, he reached the fullness of a long career; for his soul was pleasing to the Lord, therefore he sped him out of the midst of wickedness.”

 Praised be Jesus Christ!

PROPERANTES ADVENTUM DIEI DEI