6 FEBRUARY 2023
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated for Karlynn Beck at Immaculate Conception Parish by her pastor, Father Terrance Klein. Burial followed at the Claflin Cemetery.
A beautiful feature of the Mass was the Prayers of the Faithful being read by her young grandchildren.
| His compassion is not spent | Karlynn Beck |
| Terrance Klein | 6 February 2023 |
Lamentations 3: 17-26 1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18 Matthew 5: 1-12a
Our passage from Lamentations could have been composed with this day in mind, as we mourn Karlynn’s loss. It could so easily be voiced by Fred, for she was his cause for hope in the Lord and the great confirmation of God’s care for him.
My life is deprived of peace,
I have forgotten what happiness is;
my enduring hope, I said,
has perished before the Lord.
And Evin, whose heart doesn’t break, knowing that you didn’t take her love for granted. You were on your way home to visit when she was taken.
And every member of Karlynn’s family could so easily voice the next line from Lamentations, for they have truly lost their home. Karlynn made the place pretty, but she herself was the great beauty that made it their cherished home. Now, and in so many days to come, how can they look at the work of her hands, the tasteful charm she created, and not feel her loss all over again.
The thought of my wretched homelessness
is wormwood and poison;
remembering it over and over,
my soul is downcast.
But of course, you are a people of faith, and Lamentations goes on to voice what you yourselves truly believe.
But this I will call to mind;
therefore I will hope:
the Lord’s acts of mercy are not exhausted,
his compassion is not spent;
they are renewed each morning—
great is your faithfulness!
If an unbeliever or someone whose faith was weak were to ask you to justify your trust in God, even in this most difficult and dark of moments, you could point to Karlynn herself. She was God’s good gift to you. God couldn’t bless you as he did in her and then wish you sorrow or destruction.
Only those who take their loved ones for granted, who fail to see their very lives as the gift of God, can chide God for calling his own creation back to himself, can question if God really is as good as we say.
No, now is the time to verse ourselves again in the goodness of God and in the Gospel message of resurrection.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,
so too will God, through Jesus,
bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Today, hear that Gospel anew, as you grieve Karlynn’s loss and need to strengthen your confidence of her resurrection from the dead. You already know this Gospel, this good news, because Karlynn herself, in her manner of life and love, has revealed it to you.
Remember Aesop’s fable about the grasshopper and the ants? It can be retold in a few sentences:
The ants were spending a fine winter’s day drying grain collected in the summertime. A Grasshopper, perishing with famine, passed by and earnestly begged for a little food. The Ants inquired of him, “Why did you not treasure up food during the summer?” He replied, “I had not leisure enough. I passed the days in singing.” They then said in derision: “If you were foolish enough to sing all the summer, you must dance supperless to bed in the winter.”
The story teaches children the importance of thinking and planning accordingly. Today we would say, of being proactive. It’s good, human wisdom, but it is not the Gospel. Yes, Jesus often enjoins us to look to what is yet to come, but not in fear or covetousness. No, we are to remember that God is our Father and that he will provide all that we need.
Look at the birds in the sky;
they do not sow or reap,
they gather nothing into barns,
yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are not you more important than they?
At our baptism, each of us is called into Christ, called to be another Christ in the world. This means that those who see us should see something of Christ, some aspect of his person and his teaching we alone were created to illustrate.
Karlyn lived this admonition of the Gospel. Yes, she was always thinking and planning. Everything in her home had a place, and she was ready for whatever might come next. But she lived her life in a way that reminds all of us that, no matter what we gather, the Lord asks us to surrender it freely, knowing that our greatest treasure is being claimed by him, being called his own.
Karlynn’s family remarked upon how beautiful their mother kept her home. She had an eye for style and beauty. But one had only to admire something of hers, and she gave it away. It was packed into your car before you were ready to leave.
The same is true of Karlynn’s time. As far as she was concerned, it belonged to others. If her kids had an activity, the location didn’t matter. She almost lived in Topeka when her sons played for Washburn. Attending to the needs of her grandchildren became the agenda around which she organized her calendar.
There’s an old notion that how we die reveals how we’ve lived. Her son Evin was on his way home for a visit, and Karlynn was on her way to Wichita to pick him up. We Catholics still speak of the grace that is a good death. Yes, Karlynn’s comes too soon, but can one ask for a better end than to die giving of yourself to another? Could she have left a better example of who she was, who the Lord had created her to be?
See the pattern of her life: what God gave Karlynn, she gave to others. She trusted that giving away her possessions, her time, and her love would not impoverish her, not leave her exhausted or drained of life. No, Karlynn knew that if she lived as her Lord Jesus had lived and as he teaches us to live, she would possess all she needed and that her days would be filled with loving devotion. Love didn’t need to be hoarded, like ants who know that winter is approaching. It could be given away so freely because Jesus himself is our eternal Springtime.
Karlynn was an extraordinary minister of the Eucharist. And what is the Eucharist, except the table God sets for us, his own gift of self, a bread that never diminishes and a cup that never runs dry? See the continuity between the ministry Karlynn exercised and the way of life she modeled.
Karlynn’s struggles are at an end. Kent and family, yours are strong and they will continue. You have suffered a great loss. You could easily be tempted to draw into your selves, to become bitter and afraid. When you remember her in sorrow, remember her also in hope. She gave you the example you now need. She gave you the life and love that will carry you home, to her and to the Lord who created and redeemed her.
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