18 NOVEMBER 2022
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated for Ambrose Wondra at Holy Family Church in Odin, Kansas. Father Terrance Klein, pastor, was celebrant. Joyce Haberman was the organist, and Michelle Beran, the cantor.
Interment followed in the parish cemetery. Casket Bearers were Justin Miller, Andy Burkhalter, John Wondra, Paul Burkhalter, Jeff Wondra, and Joe Wondra. Honorary Bearers were A J Wondra and Connor Wondra.
A man has made a marriage with his place |
Funeral Homily for Ambrose Wondra |
Terrance Klein |
Holy Family 18.XI.2022 |
Job 19: 1, 23-27 1st Corinthians 15: 20-23 John 12: 23-26
Catholics don’t give eulogies. When we bury our dead, there’s only one man we’re supposed to talk about, Jesus the Christ. Our task now is to renew our confidence in Christ and the power of his resurrection, though I would like to speak of Jesus by first speaking of Ambrose, because, as the Church teaches, “the mystery of God’s love and the mystery of Jesus’ victorious death and resurrection were present” in Ambrose’s life.
Here are a few lines from the beginning of a poem called, “The Current.” From the American farmer and poet Wendell Berry, it’s about the deep bond between a farmer and his land.
Having once put his hand into the ground
Seeding there what he hopes will outlast him,
A man has made a marriage with his place,
And if he leaves it his flesh will ache to go back.
His hand has given up its birdlife in the air.
It has reached into the dark like a root
And begun to wake, quick and mortal, in timelessness
Ambrose was born on a farm, so there probably never was a time when his days could have been described as “birdlife in the air.” He was never free to roam, and Ambrose didn’t want to be. He wanted to give himself, every day of his life, and no small part of his evenings, to working the land. As Mike put it, “He was the hardest working man I ever knew. It was hard to get him away from the farm for more than a day or two at a time.”
Indeed, Berry perfectly describes Ambrose’s experience of leaving the farm, first for life in Hoisington and then Overland Park.
A man has made a marriage with his place,
And if he leaves it his flesh will ache to go back.
But it wouldn’t be true to say that farming consumed Ambrose. He knew that, as noble of a vocation as it might be, there were other loves, other concerns that God had given to him.
This is a man who never missed Sunday Mass. A man who was there for his kids, even if he had to devise ingenious ways both to farm and to be present to them: fill the tank truck with water while the kids were playing ball nearby. Put your son in the combine with you and listen to a Royals Game together. There are lots of ways to tend the farm and raise the kids at the same time!
We don’t speak of Christ the farmer, sensibly enough because he never was one, and as he said, “The Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head” (Mt 8: 20). Yet Jesus likened his ministry to that of a farmer scattering seed. More than that, he spoke of his own death as a seed, falling into the dark earth so that it might bear great fruit.
What Berry wrote of a farmer can equally be applied to Christ, allowing himself to be planted upon the wood of a tree into the Mount of Calvary.
Having once put his hand into the ground
Seeding there what he hopes will outlast him,
We know that what Christ seeded has borne fruit. Reborn in baptism, we are the fruits of his passion and his resurrection.
Christ has been raised from the dead,
The firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.
For just as in Adam all die,
So too in Christ shall all be brought to life,
But each one in the proper order:
Christ the firstfruits;
Then, at his coming, those who belong to Christ.
Remember that line from Wendell Berry, which spoke so truly of Ambrose?
A man has made a marriage with his place,
And if he leaves it his flesh will ache to go back.
It’s also true of Christ. Remember, his Ascension into heaven doesn’t mean that he leaves behind the things of earth. Far from it, Christ takes his human nature, planted and raised on earth, into the Godhead itself.
So, we can speak of Christ as still being wedded to earth. It’s not something he loved and left behind. And what Berry said of a farmer’s hand is equally true of Christ’s.
It has reached into the dark like a root
And begun to wake, quick and mortal, in timelessness
Yes, we come to Eucharist to pray that the Lord forgive whatever sins might still cling to Ambrose. But we come with great confidence, because our Lord is every bit as conscientious a farmer as Ambrose was. He has no intention of losing his crop, whether that be Ambrose or we.
A man has made a marriage with his place,
And if he leaves it his flesh will ache to go back.
That’s why Christ comes to us now, in the flesh, in the Most Holy Eucharist. His flesh aches to come back to us.
Take comfort and hope. Whatever heaven is, it is not far removed from earth. The next time you’re on land that Ambrose farmed, touch its soil; let its wind caress you; look up, into the sky it holds. Ambrose will be there.
A man has made a marriage with his place,
And if he leaves it his flesh will ache to go back.
╬ ╬ ╬
