Mia Jade Roth

3 APRIL 2023

A Mass of Christian Resurrection was celebrated for Mia Jade Roth at Saint Joseph Church in Ellinwood, Kansas. Father Terrance Klein, pastor, presided.

Read the obituary

Listen to the homily

When a child cries	Mia Jade Roth
Terrance Klein	Saint Joseph 3.IV.2023

Lamentations 3: 22-24 Hebrews 4: 14-16 Mark 10: 13-16

We come when a child cries, don’t we? We respond. Doesn’t matter what we’re doing or who we are. The cry sounds in our souls. One could say, we know who we are when a child cries. We’re those who answer.

Here’s the heartache of Nick and Erica. Mia Jade cried, but before they could respond she fell silent. In God’s mercy, most of us will never know what it is like to race with a silent child to an emergency room, never need to stand aside, in anxious agony, as others struggle mightily to bring back the sound of that child’s cry.

We can accept, even recognize, the wisdom, which ordains death to be a part of life. Yet we must respond to the crying of parents who bury their child. We can’t help but to ask, why doesn’t God see their tears, why didn’t God hear Mia’s cry?

Death should close a long life. Mia was supposed to journey from the love of parents to the love of friends, and then on to that love who would be her life’s commitment. She should have had her own children and with them honored her parents until their deaths. At least, to the extent that our feeble minds can comprehend, that is what should have happened.

But Mia Jade cried, and now she’s fallen silent. Erica and Nick, that silence will sound in your hearts for all your years to come. You will continue to ask, what could you have done? What should you have seen? How could someone not respond to a child’s cry. Where was God? Where is God?

The mystery of human suffering slides into terrible focus when an infant falls silent. Yet God has a way of responding, of speaking to us in the silence. Once again, in the face of death, the Church tells us to verse ourselves in the gospels. It’s Holy Week, and this year we’ve read the Passion according to Saint Matthew.

In this gospel, in the gloom of gathering terror, Jesus enters the garden to pray. Before he falls silent on Calvary, Jesus cries out to his Father, just as we did in that emergency room and in the days that followed.

“My Father, if it is not possible that this cup pass

without my drinking it, your will be done!” (Mt 26: 42).

How many questions of our Lord went unanswered that night in the garden? Did he fully comprehend the terrible depth of this cup? Yet Jesus knew his Father, who it was who asked this of him. Knew that God, who is pure goodness and limitless love, never wills evil.

In Saint Matthew’s passion, when all the suffering, spiritual and physical is done, Jesus dies, offering another apparently unanswered prayer. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (27: 46). Saint Matthew records no response. There is only silence, for Jesus, for us. But who doesn’t come when a child cries?

But the God the Father is not unmoved, not passive in the face of evil. Far from it, he pours out the Holy Spirit so that Christ can indeed drink our cup of suffering. He drains it of death itself. The Letter to the Hebrews assures us that

We do not have a high priest

who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses,

but one who has similarly been tested in every way,

yet without sin.

Yes, we would have Mia by our side if we could. But that isn’t given to us, any more than it was given to the Virgin Mary, the most beloved of God’s creatures. No, the sorrowful mother had to take her stand, beneath her son’s cross. His cries were a sword through her heart.

Each Holy Week, we recall the pain of the passion so that we may understand that God the Father did respond to the call of his Beloved Son, indeed has responded to the sound of our cries. He pours out the Holy Spirit upon us, the same spirit who raised Jesus from the dead.

Even in death, there are signs, intimations of our life to come. I praise God that I was granted the grace, in that emergency room, to christen this child, to give her to Christ. “Mia Jade, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” In her baptism, the Lord Jesus claimed Mia as his own. He calls the little children to come to him, just as he calls to us.

Mia is with Jesus and his saints. Mary holds her now, showing Mia her parents and her family, telling her to intercede for them. These words from Lamentations belong to us in sorrow. They belong to Mia in joy.

The favors of the LORD are not exhausted,

his mercies are not spent;

They are renewed each morning,

so great is his faithfulness.

My portion is the LORD, says my soul;

therefore will I hope in him.

╬ ╬ ╬

Seven Sorrows of Mary Rosary

The Act of Contrition

O my God, I am heartily sorry for having offended You, and I detest all my sins because I dread the loss of Heaven and the pains of hell; but most of all because they offend You, my God, You Who are all good and deserving of all my love. I firmly resolve, with the help of Your grace, to confess my sins, to do penance, and to amend my life. Amen.

The First Sword of Sorrow: The Prophecy of Simeon

Luke 2:34-35

And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is destined for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be contradicted (and you yourself a sword will pierce) so that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed”.

Let us pray,

O Mary, you were told that your Son was destined to suffer for the many. Even knowing that you would lose him to a horrible death, you loved him so much, so tenderly, accepting that sorrow is the cost we pay for love. Even after losing Mia, do not let us close our hearts to love. O Mary, whose heart was pieced with a sword of sorrow, intercede for us with your Son.

The Second Sword of Sorrow: The Flight Into Egypt

Matthew 2:13-14

When they had departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I tell you. Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him.” Joseph rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed for Egypt.

Let us pray,

Beloved Mother, love of your Son took your little family into exile in Egypt. Love sometimes takes us where we would never choose to go. Intercede for us, so that we may receive the graces we need to move forward from the sorrow of Mia’s death. May your merciful Son lead us on to a place of rest and comfort we know not yet.

The Third Sword of Sorrow: The Loss of Jesus in the Temple

Luke 2:43-45

After they had completed its days, as they were returning, the boy Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem, but his parents did not know it. Thinking that he was in the caravan, they journeyed for a day and looked for him among their relatives and acquaintances, but not finding him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for him.

Let us pray,

Sorrowful Mother, we feel lost after the death of Mia. Yet we know that even when God allows us to suffer, it is only for the sake of some greater good. Ask the Father of Mercies to pour out his Spirit upon us, so that our faith is strong. Help us to know that we and Mia were created for life with you. Do not let us lose our way or give up the search. We will be reunited someday soon.

The Fourth Sword of Sorrow: Mary Meets Jesus on His Way to Calvary

Luke 23:27-29

A large crowd of people followed Jesus, including many women who mourned and lamented him. Jesus turned to them and said, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep instead for yourselves and for your children, for indeed, the days are coming when people will say, ‘Blessed are the barren, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed’.

Let us pray,

Our Lady of Sorrows, you met your Son on his way to Calvary, a death you were powerless to prevent. Mia was given such a short time on this earth, in our midst. Let her grow into the fullness of the kingdom in your arms, until the day when she is ready to receive us into the halls of heaven.

The Fifth Sword of Sorrow: Mary Stands at the Foot of the Cross

John 19:25-27

Standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary of Magdala. When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple there whom he loved, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son.” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother.” And from that hour the disciple took her into his home.

Let us pray,

Sorrowful Mother, you knew the great sadness of watching the suffering of your beloved Son. Intercede for us with him, the healer of hearts. To Mia’s parents, and to all those who beheld her passion, grant a firm belief in our resurrection from the dead. Mia was baptized and confirmed in Christ. She lives now in him, and with all his saints and angels, she glorifies our Lord.

The Sixth Sword of Sorrow: Jesus is Taken Down From the Cross

John 19:32-34

So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first and then of the other one who was crucified with Jesus. But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs, but one soldier thrust his lance into his side, and immediately blood and water flowed out.

Let us pray,

Mary, our mother, the sorrow of Mia’s death will never go away. It is a burden her parents and family will carry for the rest of their lives, but the day will come when the Lord Jesus lifts that anguish from their weary arms, when he places their beloved Mia in those same arms, safe for all eternity.

The Seventh Sword of Sorrow: The Burial of Jesus

John 19:41-42

Now in the place where he had been crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had yet been buried. So they laid Jesus there because of the Jewish preparation day; for the tomb was close by.

Let us pray,

O sorrowful Mother, you gave your Son’s lifeless body to the safekeeping of the earth. Tomorrow we will entrust Mia’s small body to the Kansas prairie, where it will await the resurrection of all righteous flesh. Intercede for us, so that our faith in your Son is strong. Ask that we, who have shared your sorrow, may someday soon know the joy of your Son’s resurrection.

Closing Prayer

Hail, Holy Queen,

Mother of mercy,

our life, our sweetness and our hope.

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.

To thee to we send up our sighs,

mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn, then, most gracious advocate,

thine eyes of mercy toward us,

and after this, our exile,

show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.

O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.