17 DECEMBER 2022
Father Terrance Klein celebrated a memorial Mass for Mary Lou Ehrlich, who recently died in Colorado. She grew up in Immaculate Conception Parish.
Link to the audio of the homily
| A Memorial Mass | Mary Lou Ehrlich |
| Terrance Klein | Immaculate Conception 17.XII.2022 |
Isaiah 25: 6, 7-9 Romans 6: 3-4, 8-9 John 5: 24-29
We celebrate a memorial Mass this morning for Mary Lou. The adjective in that term, “memorial,” is why we remember the youngest of six siblings, growing up on a Kansas farm, the mother who was always there when her own children needed childcare, and the friend who loved playing cards.
This is the modifier of the term “Memorial Mass”: thanking Our Lord for the gift of Mary Lou’s life, for the love she brought into our lives, and for the many blessings she received, like being able to live in her own home, still surrounded by her loved ones, until the very end. Even if there were no resurrection from the dead, how could we not give thanks to the Lord who created us from nothing and gave us the lives we live?
But it is the noun, the substantive “Mass” that makes this morning truly meaningful, worth our time. For if we were not encountering our Glorified Lord Jesus in this Eucharist, what really would be the purpose? We would simply be those next in line to be forgotten, celebrating one who precedes us in death. Without the power and promise of Christ, it would all be nothing more than whispers in a Kansas wind, something scarcely heard before it vanishes.
But Our Lord told us:
Amen, amen, I say to you,
Whoever hears my word
And believes in the one who sent me
Has eternal life and will not come to condemnation,
But has passed from death to life.
The Mass is our down payment on the promise of Christ. We can truly give thanks for Mary Lou because her identity has been forged, not only in our minds, which are themselves passing, but in the heart of Jesus.
Amen, amen, I say to you, the hour is coming
And is now here when the dead
Will hear the voice of the Son of God,
And those who hear will live.
God created time; he does not dwell in it. As difficult as it might be for us to understand, everything that ever happened in time or ever will happen in time occurs today for God. Every moment of human life, save that marred by sin, remains forever before God.
Consequently, if you listen to the prayers of the Church, as she passes through her liturgical year, you will hear her say such things as, “Today Christ is born for us.” “Today Christ is risen.” Unlike our cultural observance of Christmas, we know that the entire Christ is present to us in each celebration of the Mass: the promised Christ, the newborn, the suffering Christ, the risen one.
This gathering-in of time is already to be found in the gospels. Even the joyful accounts of Christ’s births are suffused with his coming suffering and death. Saint Matthew will tell us that the powerful already seek to kill the child. The magi bring him incense in preparation for his coming sacrificial death.
Mary Lou loved the holidays. Christmas was a life-long favorite. She loved gathering with family and friends, decorating, and just being around her loved ones, spending happy, holiday times with them.
Mary loved to make Christmas wreaths and share them with her friends and family. The Christmas wreath predates Christianity. Ancient people in Europe hung greenery in winter for the same reason that they lit small fires and thrust them up into the sky. They were practicing what scholars call sympathetic magic, trying to show heavenly powers what was needed. In this case, the return of the sun’s warmth and the growth of green life-sustaining foods.
It's easy to see why Christians turned these evergreen garlands into Christmas wreaths. They spoke to them of Christ, the fresh sprout who bespeaks the coming Spring; the light who defies the darkness. We may no longer know what these meant to ancient peoples or what they should mean to us as Christians, but they were none-the-less a way for Mary to share her faith.
And of course, Mary did that with more than symbols. Again, to use a word we’ve largely drained of its rich meaning, Mary was a caregiver. She cared for others, meaning that her love and respect for them found expression in her ministering to their needs. This is true whether we think of the job Mary loved or her own loved ones.
And so, we gather for a Memorial Mass. Rich in memories that will remain evergreen because they rest in the heart of Christ, wound together into a living, imperishable wreath of hearts.
If, then, we have died with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
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