13 MAY 2023
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated for Paul Oberle by Father Terrance Klein, pastor of Immaculate Conception Church.
Link to the obituary
Audio of the homily
Semper Paratus |
Funeral of Paul Oberle |
Terrance Klein |
13.V.2023 |
Daniel 12: 1-3 1 Corinthians 15: 51-57 Luke 12: 35-40
Saint Ignatius of Loyola famously said, “Give me a child until he is seven years old, and I will show you the man.” The founder of the Jesuits, the Catholic religious order that has educated millions since its establishment, thought that the early years of life, for better or for worse, greatly determine what will follow.
Paul was the last born of eight brothers. He was only two years old and his mother pregnant with his sister, when their Father Anton died. That wouldn’t have allowed him much memory of his dad, though young Paul would have known well the struggles of his mother Lena to stay on the farm with her children during the Great Depression. It’s one thing to mention those years, but who among us can truly imagine what it would have been like to live through them?
Yet perhaps it is that experience of struggle after a sudden and devastating surprise that formed the man Paul became. Like so many others during those years, Paul couldn’t finish high school as he was needed on the farm. Only service with the U.S. Army took him away from home.
In baptism, we are claimed by Christ. We become adopted children of his heavenly Father. That’s what we receive, but we are also charged to become another Christ for the world in which we will live. When a man or a woman has faithfully lived out this vocation until death, we call them saints, holy ones, of God. We believe that we can see in their lives something of the Christ they became for us.
Paul worked decades for the city of Claflin, performing duties that often came with no advance notice, such as shoveling snow from the streets. It mattered greatly to Paul that this work was done immediately and well. The desire to meet calamity with courage and determination perhaps also explains Paul’s decision to be a local firefighter. Paul served for thirty-six years. As fire chief, in the wake of a young boy’s death after a tragic accident for lack of medical attention, Paul led the formation of our local EMT service.
In Claflin, we don’t bury many men who weren’t hard working or who didn’t love their families. Every mourner can speak of a loved one who attended all his kids’ sporting events, as though this represented a sacrifice. But we don’t often bury someone who lived a life so prepared for whatever the Lord might ask of him. Paul was, in the words of the Latin maxim, semper paratus, always ready.
Think of all the calls that came in the middle of the night or at other times when they were least expected. The city had some need; there was a fire; someone was injured. Paul was ready, and Paul was there.
Gird your loans and light your lamps
And be like servants
who await their master’s return from a wedding,
ready to open immediately when he comes and knocks.
Blessed are those servants
whom the master finds vigilant on his arrival.
Funny thing about heroism, about doing the unexpected and the difficult. It seems a lot easier when we are young, but as we age, we are much more attached to our comforts, more easily disturbed, more quickly tired. Someone once said, “Growing old isn’t for cowards.” It’s quite difficult for a young person to imagine what it is like to surrender your vehicle and then your home or to live each day knowing that you are speeding towards your final hour.
Saint Paul told his little flock in Corinth:
Behold, I tell you a mystery.
We shall not all fall asleep, but we will all be changed
In an instant, in the blink of an eye,
At the last trumpet.
Even in the clouds of dementia, Paul faced these days with courage. How did he do this? Once again, he was prepared. He was prepared both by a life of service and by his faith. This world is not our home, but each day we live here we build something of the heavenly Jerusalem to which we are bound.
Once again we gather at the altar where Paul worshipped for so many years. We celebrate the Church’s great act of petition and of thanksgiving. We ask the Good Lord to forgive whatever sins Paul committed through human weakness. But we also give thanks to the Lord of heaven for creating Paul, for redeeming him, and for giving him to us for more than nine decades.
His mind may have clouded in his last days, but Paul had lived a life that made him ready for the Lord. And now
The wise shall shine brightly
Like the splendor of the firmament,
And those who lead the many to justice
Shall be like the stars forever.
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