The Funeral Mass for Colleen Votsmier
Dear brothers and sisters,
Today our hearts are heavy as we mourn the death of one we loved and whom we still love. This is why we can say with the author of the Book of Lamentations, “My soul is deprived of peace” (Lamentations 3:17). But in our grief we must remember that the mercies of the Lord “are not spent” (Lamentations 3:22).
Nearly sixty-five years of marriage is no small thing and while there must have been many difficulties and challenges along the way, I know that there were also many beautiful, enriching, and joyful moments, as well.
H. A., I know these past two and a half months have been painful for you, separated as you have been from the love of your life. But I thank you for the witness of faithful love you have shown to us all in your daily visits to Colleen. They are a testament not only of your love for her, but also of the love of Christ Jesus for his Bride, the Church. The two of you remained faithful to each other for more than six decades and fulfilled the promises you made to each other. Your marriage to Colleen is one of the ways we know “the favors of the Lord are not exhausted” (Lamentations 3:22).
Colleen, of course knew this, as well, which is what led her to prepare for death and why, at the end, she was ready, hard as it is for us who remain. She hoped in the Lord and knew that the Lord is good “to one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him” (Lamentations 3:25).
But even with this certainty the approach of death is still difficult for us. This is why Jesus himself said, when seeing his own impending death, “I am troubled now” (John 12:27). Yet still he prayed to his Father, “glorify your name” and our Father replied, “I have glorified it and will glorify it again” (John 12:28). What does this mean? How will he glorify his name again?
Saint Augustine, our heavenly patron, proposed an answer to this question in several different ways. This is what he said, speaking, as it were, on the Father’s behalf:
“I have both glorified it,” before I created the world, “and I will glorify it again,” when he shall rise from the dead and ascend into heaven. It may also be otherwise understood. “I have both glorified it” could be understood to refer to when he was born of the Virgin; when he exercised miraculous powers; when the magi, guided by a star in the heavens, bowed in adoration before him; when he was recognized by saints filled with the Holy Spirit. It could further refer to when he was openly proclaimed by the descent of the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and pointed out by the voice that sounded from heaven; when he was transfigured on the mount; when he performed many miracles, fed so vast a number with a very few loaves, commanded the winds and the waves, and to when he raised the dead. “And I will glorify it again” could refer to when he would rise from the dead, when death would no longer have dominion over him. It can also refer to when he would be exalted over the heavens as God and to when his glory would extend over all the earth.[1]
His glory will extend over all the earth when he will destroy death itself on the Last Day and raise the dead to life.
We have come today, then, to commend Colleen to the Lord with the confidence that everyone who belongs to Christ will be brought to life again at the resurrection of the dead (cf. I Corinthians 15:23, 22). But what does Saint Paul mean when he says that, when the Lord Jesus return in his glory, he will “be all in all” (I Corinthians 15:28)?
One way of answering this is to say that “God will be the consummation of all our desiring – the object of our unending vision, of our unlessening love, of our unwearying praise.”[2] Indeed, when the Lord at last raises us from the dust of the earth “we shall be filled, but it will be with God,” who will satisfy every longing of our hearts.[3]
For this reason, “it is good to hope in silence for the saving help of the Lord” (Lamentations3:26). Let us, then, entrust Colleen to the merciful faithfulness of God that having served him in this life, she may be with him forever (cf. John 12:26). Amen.
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