Celebrating Amelia: Her Life and Person
Sermon of Fr. Vic Baltazar, SJ on the Mass for Amelia O. Herrera (+)
The readings for today, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time revolves around the theme of Sacred Kairos, the time of fulfillment, the opportune time that God’s grace brings. The Gospel also teaches us of God’s call that again comes to us only in those graced moments—in the same Sacred moment of Kairos–this time of fulfillment. I’d like to believe that Amelia, the person whose life and character we especially celebrate this morning has received her life’s final call at that special graced moment of her life and that of her bereaved family.
For sure, there were graced stepping stones that she had in her journey that she knew of these graced moments. Every genuine call that is characterized with heroic love bears witness to this grace. Every genuine call finds a meeting place between a loving God who draws gifted person out of himself or herself so that he or she may draw from his or her giftedness in order to be of service to a corner of the world in need that God entrusts to his or her care. The call is a privileged meeting point orchestrated by the calling God so the gifts of a person may come to match the needs of God’s people. This graced triangle of call-gifts-needs are signs that God continues to love the world and look after its redemption. And yes, as we remember and celebrate Amelia, we believe that in her life, God has redeemed anew.
First, we remember Amelia’s trajectory of service—of country, and of her family. We remember her years of service as a veteran, and years of civil service in government, spanning several administrations after the war. And we remember her devoted service to her family. It’s good to highlight and celebrate the heroism in the kind of love and devotion that went into Amelia’s record of service whether in the service of a small community like that of her family or a bigger community like that of her country. Whether this be the bigger service during a period of war or conflict or the opportunity to cook for her family where her love and devotion trump any expertise in good cooking for her dishes to be able to make a mark on the memory of her family, it is that love and devotion to mark out that trajectory of service and render these no less than heroic.
Second, we notice a special thoughtfulness that Amelia, and perhaps her husband who passed 21 years before her provided for critical funds for her after retirement care as well as for the services after her death. I remember how important this service is both in view of personal care and also in view of the health of the family left behind. I was also a witness of this in my own family. My dad passed away in Ontario, Canada in the year 2004, and a funeral plan he had prepared for, for the family, had just finished with the last amortization payment in January, a month before he died on February of that year. My siblings and my mom had adequate space to properly celebrate and to grieve because the logistical concerns of the wake and funeral service were already prepared and arranged for. And that also led my siblings into thinking of their own retirement—to take care of their health and their financial conditions so that they bequeath more love and care than burden to the families they will leave behind. It is not uncommon that in many families, relationships are torn bitterly because of financial troubles and bequest quarrels. More and more we are learning that preparing for a good final act of love for our families include these things. And we can only be thankful and celebrate this quality of Amelia as she leaves behind her children, siblings and the rest of her family and reunite with her husband in heaven, as they begin to play another role in looking after the families they left behind.
Finally, we celebrate the faith that has been the foundation of Amelia’s life of commitment and foundation as well for her person. This is a faith that she has also passed on to her children, a faith that the family has witnessed once to be a source of a miraculous healing of her kidney cancer and also a sure source of support while managing the final phase of hospital critical care in this very difficult time of COVID pandemic. I find Ricky’s description in his eulogy both beautiful and touching: the faith that he had learned from his mom helped them “hope to pray for miracles but also gave them strength to prepare for the worst.” The faith somehow helped their hearts to surrender to whatever kind of loving God has is poised to offer to their mother and on whatever graced moment that loving act will come.
And true, when the time of fulfillment came, God made God’s final call to Amelia and the final call was to share in the way God loves us since he ascended back to the father. No longer will love be limited to this world’s time and space, no longer limited by body movement, no longer limited by human weakness or sin. In the glorious presence of God, everything heroic about Amelia’s love will now become accessible to us in Jesus Christ, moment by moment and at every time and space we need to call upon it. It would take some getting used to though, for as our liturgy says, “in death life is changed, not ended.” And even our loving becomes transformed into God’s loving.
We therefore end this homily as I invite you to minute to make a prayer of forgiveness for Amelia—asking her forgiveness for anything you may have done that had hurt her in the past; and then we also offer a prayer of forgiveness, offering your forgiveness to Amelia for anything she may have done which wittingly or unwittingly caused you some pain.
