Monday, February 29, 2016
485 - A Timely Eulogy
Spirituality Column #485
March 1, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
“We are gathered here because of one man …” – Fr. Paul Scalia, eulogizing his father Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
I love that line: “…here because of one man.”
I hope someone remembers to say that at my funeral.
Scalia talks of a man well-loved and widely hated; exceedingly brilliant but culturally controversial; legally without peer and religiously without precedent.
“That man,” Fr. Scalia continued, “of course, is Jesus of Nazareth.”
Think about what that means next time you are sitting at a funeral. Unless Jesus Christ was, is and always will be what He claimed to be, a funeral is no more than a remembrance of the past and a compassion for the day. Without the hope that Jesus Christ is in heaven, and without faith in His work on earth, a funeral stops when the grave is closed; ahead lays only grief, loss and fading love.
Death without Jesus has no future.
On the other hand, living and professing an abiding love in Jesus means a funeral is not the end. The truth of Jesus is that grief is real but finite; that loss is painful but will be healed, and that love ultimately, eternally wins. Jesus provides a future beyond the stain of our sins and the pain of earthly death.
Sadly, in all likelihood only a minority of folks really “got” what Father Scalia was saying about his dad the U.S. Supreme Court justice. Sitting on the Supreme Court is a job designed to be apolitical but performed in an arena that draws almost nothing nowadays but politically-motivated criticism. Scalia defended the U.S. Constitution as it was written, and those who would liberally repurpose that foundational document to accommodate modern appetites and passions found no sterner, wiser, well-spoken nor more affable opponent than “Nino” Scalia.
Predictably, many liberal media and politicians mocked Scalia’s passing, fully unappreciative of his perspicacious patriotism, legal acuity, and dedication to the proposition that truth and good do in fact objectively exist. Conservatives immediately fumbled themselves into a panic about his replacement. Political America, consumed with its partisan agendas and low-minded maneuvers, shamefully overlooked Justice Scalia’s tacit life’s-witness for Christ.
How bad is Political America? The U.S. President did not attend the funeral.
But back to eulogy, which more properly would be termed a “homily” because it spoke to the spiritual truths of sin and Jesus rather merely listing or “eulogizing” the good works of the deceased. Father Scalia, the son, eloquently insisted the funeral for his own father would carry the spirit of Jesus, the Son of our Father in Heaven.
Politics was not invited.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) appreciates his favorite magazine, First Things, providing this link to the Scalia homily text.
March 1, 2016
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary
A Timely Eulogy
By Bob Walters“We are gathered here because of one man …” – Fr. Paul Scalia, eulogizing his father Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
I love that line: “…here because of one man.”
I hope someone remembers to say that at my funeral.
Scalia talks of a man well-loved and widely hated; exceedingly brilliant but culturally controversial; legally without peer and religiously without precedent.
“That man,” Fr. Scalia continued, “of course, is Jesus of Nazareth.”
Think about what that means next time you are sitting at a funeral. Unless Jesus Christ was, is and always will be what He claimed to be, a funeral is no more than a remembrance of the past and a compassion for the day. Without the hope that Jesus Christ is in heaven, and without faith in His work on earth, a funeral stops when the grave is closed; ahead lays only grief, loss and fading love.
Death without Jesus has no future.
On the other hand, living and professing an abiding love in Jesus means a funeral is not the end. The truth of Jesus is that grief is real but finite; that loss is painful but will be healed, and that love ultimately, eternally wins. Jesus provides a future beyond the stain of our sins and the pain of earthly death.
Sadly, in all likelihood only a minority of folks really “got” what Father Scalia was saying about his dad the U.S. Supreme Court justice. Sitting on the Supreme Court is a job designed to be apolitical but performed in an arena that draws almost nothing nowadays but politically-motivated criticism. Scalia defended the U.S. Constitution as it was written, and those who would liberally repurpose that foundational document to accommodate modern appetites and passions found no sterner, wiser, well-spoken nor more affable opponent than “Nino” Scalia.
Predictably, many liberal media and politicians mocked Scalia’s passing, fully unappreciative of his perspicacious patriotism, legal acuity, and dedication to the proposition that truth and good do in fact objectively exist. Conservatives immediately fumbled themselves into a panic about his replacement. Political America, consumed with its partisan agendas and low-minded maneuvers, shamefully overlooked Justice Scalia’s tacit life’s-witness for Christ.
How bad is Political America? The U.S. President did not attend the funeral.
But back to eulogy, which more properly would be termed a “homily” because it spoke to the spiritual truths of sin and Jesus rather merely listing or “eulogizing” the good works of the deceased. Father Scalia, the son, eloquently insisted the funeral for his own father would carry the spirit of Jesus, the Son of our Father in Heaven.
Politics was not invited.
Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) appreciates his favorite magazine, First Things, providing this link to the Scalia homily text.
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