22 JULY 2024
A funeral Mass for Helen Hickel, age 89, was celebrated at Saint Joseph Parish in Ellinwood, Kansas by her pastor, Fr. Terrance Klein.
Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow |
Helen Hickel |
Father Terrance Klein |
22.VII.2024 St. Joseph Church |
Job 19: 1, 23-27 2nd Corinthians 5: 1, 6-10 John 11: 17-27
We don’t know much about her birth. Helen was one of three children born to Walter and Edith McPherson, near Perry in Noble County, Oklahoma. But what more do we need to know? Births are moments when we ponder the miracle of life itself. None of us exists out of necessity. We didn’t have to be. So, isn’t every birth received as a bright promise for the future? All that must have been pondered when little Helen was born. We come forth from God, from whom all blessings flow.
And the blessings did flow. The McPhersons moved to Kansas. Helen graduated from Chase High School, where she was a stand-out softball player. She went on to attend Fort Hays State University, at a time when post-secondary education was rare for women. And that’s where Helen met Joe Hickel, who would become, in every sense of the word, the love of her life.
Helen and Joe raised five kids here in Ellinwood, and together they left a lasting mark upon the community. The extraordinary element in Helen’s life was her vitality, her energy. Helen was a great bowler, and she shared that gift with many young people through the Barton County League and the Junior Bowling League. The kids remember so many Saturday mornings passed at the Classic Lanes, here in Ellinwood.
In the summer, while Joe was busy with the Ellinwood Rec League and running the swimming pool, Helen coached fast-pitch girls’ softball, taking one of her teams to a state competition. Always the athlete, Helen was an avid golfer as well, a familiar face at Grove Park.
Yes, at every birth we do well to ponder the goodness of God, from whom all blessings flow. The Church tells us to do the same at death. There’s so much to see when someone dies, more than we would care to see, perhaps more than we can see. All things come from God and all things must return to God. Indeed, if they don’t come from God, they are nothing. If they don’t dwell in God, they will perish. Mortal praise lasts but a moment. It passes with earthly tongues, that never wag long in one direction. Only in God do we find true honor, lasting fulfillment.
Helen knew this. She and Joe were married at this altar on December 29th, 1954. This is where they would baptize their five children, and Saint Joseph Parish will never claim more faithful members. Between the two of them, there isn’t a parish organization, a parish committee, or a parish ministry they did not serve. For many years, Helen played the organ for the choir Joe directed. Margie Moss wrote,
I remember Aunt Helen always being joyful and fun to be with. I remember her beautiful voice, and I loved hearing Helen and Joe sing at church. I’m sure they’re singing God’s praises in heaven!
At birth, we remember that all good things come from God. At death we’re reminded that everything must return to God. But this isn’t something to lament, because to return to God is to find again our origin and finally to know our destiny. In God all the work, the successes and the failures, find their meaning. In God, the sorrows of life find their true substance, their lasting significance. The passing joys of life become something solid and lasting in God, something never lost to his sure grasp.
As Kyle Zecha put it,
We will miss you dearly! 89yrs was a great life and we were blessed with a kind and loving woman, mother, grandmother and great grandmother who believed so strongly in her faith and was so musically talented. You can now rest easy…play the organ and harmonize with grandpa in the choir of angels in Heaven.
It wasn’t easy to surrender everything to God, to let it return to him. Helen wrapped her arthritic knees for years so she could remain active. Joe’s picture was a fixture of her bed. Always so active and independent, it wasn’t easy for Helen to accept meals brought into her home. Yet Helen could always say to herself, as she said her prayers, in the words of Saint Martha:
Yes, Lord. I have come to believe
That you are the Messiah, the Son of God,
The one who is coming into the world (Jn 11: 27).
Of course, at the end of her life, here at the altar of God, we pray for Helen. We pray that God forgive her sins and transform her weaknesses into strength. And at this altar, where we receive “food for the journey” we pray that the Lord keep us faithful. May he grant us the grace to serve him here on earth as long and as faithfully as Helen did.
Yes, births are a time of joy and deaths, of sorrow. But both are moments to ponder and to remember. All good things come from God and to God they must return lest they perish.
So we are always courageous, although we know
that while we are at home in the body
we are away from the Lord,
for we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor 5: 6-8).
At this moment, we’re sad, but we do not fear. We know the God to whom we go. He gave us his son Jesus. He gave us his daughter Helen. What else can we say, but those words Helen and Joe would have sung so many times:
Praise God, from whom all blessings flow;
Praise Him, all creatures here below;
Praise Him above, ye heav’nly host;
Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
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