23/05/2025

Molly’s Funeral Homily

As you know, every mass is a Eucharist, a thanksgiving. Today’s is a thanksgiving to  God for Molly’s life. You may have been at funerals where the priest’s vestments were purple – to reflect the grief at the loss of the departed. However, I prefer white, which represents my joy that Molly has already met God face to face and is already experiencing divine love immediately.

I  bear this in the front of my mind as it assuages my bereavement and grief at Molly’s death.

Thanks to the resurrection of Jesus Christ, I know that we have three not just two stages in living our lives.

First, there we were, in our mother's womb. Not breathing, just growing until, after some nine months, we are pushed out, started breathing, and saw our mother's face for the first time.

Now, here we are, in our second stage of life; breathing, seeing, learning, growing old - not, I hope, as a dog but as a fine wine. The title of my autobiography is “ a journey to eternity” – as all our lives are. Every funeral I take reminds me that death is not an ‘if’, but a when, where and how.

At death, we come to the end of the beginning - and the beginning of the end; we are born into divine eternity. Remember the Good Thief on Calvary, who was told by Jesus, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.”

The moment we die, we are born into eternity, as Molly has been soon  after 1.30pm on Friday the 11th of April. I thank God I was with her when, freed from her dementia, she was born into the third and final stage of her life; and saw the face of God.

I, personally, can't wait to die, to see the face of God for the first time - and be able to ask so many questions that are in my mind about creation and the experiences of my life.

As we can’t go back into our mother’s womb, we cannot come back to space-time and life on earth. Nor can Molly. So, goodbye – God be with you, for ever - dear Molly.

So, as I am sure you do, I thank God for Molly’s life, which with her  kindness,  sensitivity, generosity and love enriched so many lives – including mine. Amen.