Monday 13 November 2017
The Church of the Holy Cross
June Falzone
11 June 1923 - 10 November 2017
HOMILY TEXT John 6:37-40
Jesus said to the people, "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and anyone who comes to me I will never drive away; for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. This is indeed the will of my Father, that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up on the last day."
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I almost never preach on the Sixth Chapter of John at a funeral. And yet as I sat with the appointed list of readings for a funeral, I felt myself tugged again and again away from all the other Gospel options to this Gospel. And what pulls me to this Gospel is not so much what is in these few verses but rather in the whole of the Sixth Chapter of John's Gospel. This chapter is the Bread of Life Chapter. It's all about the Eucharist.
I cannot think of a better focal point for this day in which we commend June to God than the Blessed Sacrament of the Altar, the Holy Eucharist, the Mysteries of the Sacred Body and the Precious Blood of our Lord, God, and Savior, Jesus Christ. I say that because I tell you today that in the midst of all else that I think of when I think of June, it is her devotion to Christ in the Eucharist that stands out above all else. I think back to the early years of my time as Rector of this place before my work schedule became the jumbled mess that it is now and has been for some time. In those first few years, I offered a Daily Mass here at the Church on weekdays. And I could count on the fact that when I offered the Daily Mass that in the handful of those present, Tom and June would do everything in their power to make sure that they were here. It was hard to imagine in those days a Mass at Holy Cross at which they were not present. And when it occured, I remember persons young and old, especially our teenagers, expressing thoughts that it just didn't feel right to not see them at Mass.
We were not the only ones to feel as if something was not right when they were not at Mass. Tom and June each felt odd about their absence from the Mass when anything kept them from being present. They knew powerfully that the Eucharist is indeed "Bread for the Journey." They longed to encounter, or rather to be encountered by, Christ in the Sacrament. They clung to Jesus' words in this Bread of Life Chapter in which the Lord reminds us that those who eat his flesh and drink his blood have life in them, his life and the power of the resurrection. It was this power, this sacramental lifeline, that equipped them to be husband and wife to each other, parents to their children, grandparents to their grandchildren, uncle and aunt to their nieces and nephews, faithful witnesses to countless others, including myself and Father Dan, who, with a handful of our brother priests, had the honor of being the priest of this faithful couple who dedicated their whole lives to Christ.
Today it is that strength drawn from the Blessed Sacrament that enables us to stand in this House of Prayer and commend June to Christ just as we did so for Tom just 15 months ago. We commend to Almighty God a servant of God who walked among us for 94 years. We are reminded that this is not the end of her jouney but rather a glorious new beginning. Yes, we grieve, for even 94 years seem too short for us to journey with such a faithful woman. But we do not grieve without hope. Our faith assures us that June is with Christ, and nothing shall ever separate her from the love and presence of Jesus. She has passed from life to life eternal through the death of the body, carried by the angels, presented to Jesus, standing side by side with Tom and others who passed this way before her.
My heart is full of joy as I think of June being presented to her Lord in life eternal. The Epistle for today from John's Revelation speaks of Jesus making all things new, restoring all that has been broken to perfection. And as I think of June, as I have so much in these last few days, what I think of most is the restoration and perfection of sight. With you, I have thought again and again, "Oh, dearest June, what you must be seeing right now!" And what fills my heart with the greatest of joys is the knowledge that with her eyes, by sight and no longer by faith, she looks at Jesus and worships him whom she acknowledged at every Mass in our midst to be "My Lord and My God."
I cherish even more so now those moments when I would hear her whisper that simple and yet profound confession as I elevated the bread and wine in the Eucharistic Prayer, with the whisper of a woman of her years that carries like the tolling of Sanctus Bells rung with strength and passion. As I stood at the Altar both at the Vigil Mass Saturday and the Principal Mass yesterday, her voice rung out in my head. And today, I can think of no more fitting memorial that we could make for June than to both hear her voice in our souls and whisper that faith that we learned with her and from her, acknowledging Jesus lifted high in our midst to be "My Lord and My God."
Only, dear friends, don't merely whisper those words, or even merely shout them either. Draw strength from them. This Eucharist, these sacramental gifts, are the bread for our journey towards the day when we shall see Christ no longer veiled in bread and wine, but fully revealed in all of his glory for us to behold no longer by faith but by sight. And know beyond any shadow of doubt that the strength of this Sacrament will be what you need to grieve with hope, to live as Christ for one another, to be the best parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, brother, sister, cousin, friend, faithful witness to Jesus, that you can be with the help of God. And as draw strength from Christ in the Sacrament, rest assured that our sister, June, now in the presence of Christ, continues to pray for us, whom she loved so much, for whom she longed to make Christ known for us and for our salvation.
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The Rev'd Timothy Alleman, Rector
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