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The Brilliance of The Fall Leaves in Their Dying

Many live to be a hundred and do not achieve the vibrant love that she and her husband achieved in five short years.

This is a summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily delivered at St. Charles on November 16, 2003

"WE KNOW NOT the day nor the hour."
"Never ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee." (John Donne)

This past week Pat Fairbanks a parishioner, died. The death of a member not only affects a family, it touches us all. For me it was an experience of the fragility of life.

I had been invited earlier in the week to anoint a young woman from the parish. I knew her as a Sunday worshipper. She and her husband always sat at the fourth seat on the left. She had been married 5 years.Just three months after her wedding she discovered that she had a serious cancer. When I visited I found her in the company of her husband and her parents. She spoke unflinchingly of the seriousness of her condition. Reaching out beyond her own pain and loss she proclaimed the extraordinary support she had received from her husband and family. I shared the sacraments of reconciliation, anointing of the sick and viaticum, the eucharistic food that nourishes us in all our journeys, especially our last. I was still unprepared for the call the following morning to learn that she had died. Her family felt that the sacraments had strengthened her to let go of this life, trusting in Christ.

The photos at the wake spoke beautifully of what she valued. She loved creation, gardens and beaches and mountains. The children that she mentored during her lunch witnessed to her compassion. She was pictured recycling, participating in Christmas in April, rehabilitating homes for the poor and the elderly. It was essential for her to try to make her community a better place.

Many live to be a hundred and do not achieve the vibrant love that she and her husband achieved in five short years.

In the month of November as we ready ourselves for the Feast of Christ the King, the scriptures proclaim the end times. For the church the end is always described as the Kingdom. It is a reign of light and peace. During our journey we are all called to give signs of the Kingdom. Like Pat we are invited to prepare for the last days by building a better world, a time of love and compassion.

Pat and her husband met at a meeting of the GAO. More went on in that encounter than accounting.! He can now count the many blessings and mercies that the Lord has brought into his life through this beautiful, loving woman. Her virtues take on the brilliance of the fall leaves in their dying.

In the eventide of life, says St. John of the Cross, He will examine me in love. May none of us be found wanting.

  or  2003 Homilies