Pie Jesu Domine

I am, once again, privileged to be among God's people at All Saints Church in Worcester. Because they celebrate their patronal feast day next weekend ("All Saints Day") they have a tradition of extending that time by including a celebration of All Souls Day the week prior - so the readings for today differ from what most parishes are using. They can be found here. 

First, and most importantly: yesterday late in the afternoon, William Ruben Reyes Rosendale was born, the first son to the Reverends Mary Rosendale and Jose Reyes. Our prayers are with this family, near and dear to our hearts.

Your program says that Jose is preaching today. That was the plan. But kids sometimes change the best laid plans, and today you and I are all surprised together that you get me!

But here goes…

We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. Always when we gather in this thin place where many have come before us, and many will come after us. But today we are more keenly aware, on this Feast of All Souls. We remember those whose names are printed in your program today. We remember Priscilla and Elisabeth who died just this past week. The grief of those who loved them is still fresh and maybe even raw. Hold them in your care. Give those who loved them a hug.

We will also name those who have died over the course of this past year: Sandra and Thomas and Marjory and George and Doris, Diana and Peter and John, Caollen and Charlie and Nadeen and Henry and Kevin, Richard and Janet. There may be others we will name as well. Our Jewish brothers and sisters, when they gather for prayer, pray the mourner’s kaddish to remember those who have died, which is something like what we do here today as we light those votive candles. Interestingly, the kaddish is focused on God: on praising God for having shared these people with us more than on grief or loss. We give thanks to the Creator for the privilege of knowing these people.

Many of you, including me, have added names that are found at the end of our program today. And I’m sure there are many, many more who for whatever reason didn’t get to respond and fill out the form to have their loved ones remembered today. Or just there are too many to number, and so we write down the names that mean the most. Literally all of the names we bring with us today could fill many books!

But they are not just names on a page. They each have their own unique stories. I added Richard, my father, who died at the age of 37 and I added my step-father, Martin, who died just fifteen months ago. I won’t tell you their stories here, but I bring them with me to the Table today as I know you bring those whom you love but see no longer. We hold them in our hearts as the choir leads us through Faure’s Requiem Mass. It is all beautiful but the Pie Jesu in particular, touches my soul:

Pie Jesu Domine. Dona eis requiem., sempieternaum requiem.
Merciful Lord Jesus, grant them rest, eternal rest.

Faure is so beautiful. If I’m lucky enough to have a choir like this one sing at my funeral I’d like to request the music we are hearing today sung. I actually put this request in to Graeme this week but I’m not sure he took me seriously, nor was prepared for my dying. But you are all now my witnesses! Not every choir in this diocese can pull this off, but we are very blessed, and we are all grateful. 

Thank you choir. But seriously, you all are going to owe me one, so I’m going public on the request: sing Faure for me when I’m gone!

There is also a poet/theologian from the swamps of Jersey that I’m a big fan of – his name is Bruce Springsteen. If you can get him to sing at my funeral that’d be cool, too. The Boss has a song on a less well-known album called Wrecking Ball which is called We Are Alive! It’s an All Souls hymn that we are not singing here today, and I am not going to sing it for you either, which is a blessing for you all. But the words of that poem begin like this:

There is a cross up yonder up on Calvary Hill / There is a slip of blood on a silver knife / There is a graveyard kid down below / Where at night did come to life / And above the stars, they crackle in fire / A dead man's moon throws seven rings. / Well, we put our ears to the cold grave stones / This is the song they'd sing / We are alive / Although our bodies lie alone here in the dark / Our spirits rise to carry the fire and light the spark / To stand shoulder to shoulder and heart to heart.

Those names, on the pages of our programs today and all the other names written on our hearts: they are alive! Their spirits rise to carry the fire and light the spark and we stand shoulder to shoulder, and heart to heart. We may not see them any longer but they are alive. And they cheer us on!

And that's what this day is about. As we heard from the prophet Isaiah, death is swallowed up. We live in that thin place where the table is set with a banquet - a fiesta and we are all in this together: saints triumphant and as the old language of the church put it, the saints militant.

Our work is to raise up saints like William Ruben Reyes Rosendale as we share the faith we have received with them, trusting that death is not an end but a transition to something greater. We feel sad when we lose those we love but we also live in hope.

This is not a denial of death. We know enough about death. But it is a fierce claim of resistance, that death does not get the last word. Not ever.

Grant eternal rest to them, and let light perpetual shine upon them. And give us the faith to run the race that is set before us with perseverance, with courage, and with hope. And with love - always love.