Easter Exultet
 Shake out your qualms. Shake up your dreams. Deepen your roots. Extend your branches. 
Trust deep water and head for the open, even if your vision shipwrecks you. 
Quit your addiction to sneer and complain. 
Open a lookout. 
Dance on a brink. Run with your wildfire. 
You are closer to glory leaping an abyss than upholstering a rut. 
Not dawdling. Not doubting. Intrepid all the way, walk toward clarity. 
At every crossroad be prepared to bump into wonder. 
Only love prevails. 
En route to disaster insist on canticles. 
Lift your ineffable out of the mundane. 
Nothing perishes; nothing survives; everything transforms! 
Honeymoon with Big Joy!
 ~ James Broughton ~
 (Sermons of the Big Joy)

"The greatest among you must behave as if you were the youngest, the leader as if he were the one who serves" ~ Luke 22:26

That statement is probably the simplest and most powerful definition of authority to be found in all four Gospels.  "For who is the greater, the one at table or the one who serves?" Most of us would say immediately, "The one at table." Jesus says, "Yet here I am among you as one who serves" (Luke 22:27). Jesus says, in effect, "I'm telling you that the way of domination will not build a new world. I have come to model for you the way to be human and the way to be divine—it is the way of loving service.” 

A meditation provided by Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM.

Last evening, I had the privilege of leading a service for Daryl J., a 65-year-old man who passed away in his sleep after an extended illness.   Every family is special in their own way.  Daryl’s family and friends had a true joyful spirit.  While we often use the phrase, last night’s service was truly a “celebration of life.” 

His family shared beautiful reflections about Daryl, but I was moved by a particular comment.  I was told that “he loved out loud.”  I can’t think of a better way to capture someone’s spirit.  Daryl wasn’t afraid to let people know that he loved them and was famous for ending every conversation with “I love you, man.”  

It’s our character that summarizes our lives.  And Daryl’s character was one of always finding the best in any situation and making people feel better about themselves because of being with him.

We hear in St. John’s letter that “God is love and everyone who lives in love, lives in God and God lives in them” (1 John 4:16).  It is the moving of love in and through our lives that is the hand of the ever-living God.  Daryl was one of those hands. 

Maybe the takeaway for us is not to be shy about those we love – let everyone know that we love them.  Let’s take a page from Daryl’s life, let’s “love out loud.”

On January 13th, I had the privilege of officiating at the funeral of Linley Carlyle Michael.  In my reflection post, you’ll read about the most amazing family and a large-than-life man who was always loving and kind.  He was a prankster, peacemaker, and a never-give-up fighter.   

His wife and six sons loved him intensely -- and they still do.  If anything, that love has grown since the funeral.  As Dominican priest Fr. Bede Jarrett reminds us: Life is unending because love is undying.  I believe this because I see it so often. 

A month after his death, his wife, sons, family and friends gathered to celebrate a first-month memorial mass and share dinner.  Part of the gathering was to view a wonderful video tribute made by his family.  Please watch this wonderful video. 

The video is titled Prometheus, the Greek mythological champion of mankind known for his wily intelligence who stole fire from Zeus and gave it to mortals.   This is who Linley Michael was and remains to his family -- a man with a passion for life and a love for all.

This wonderful video has a number of powerful messages from Linley.   I’ll share just two (but there are many):

• You only live once, but if you live it right, once is enough
  

But, for me the most powerful is the question Linley asks us all:

• If you were arrested for kindness would there be enough evidence to convict you?

For Linley, the evidence is overwhelming -- a conviction is assured.  May it be so for us all.

Linley Carlyle Michael ~ 1939 –2012 ~ Brother, Husband, Father, Grandfather

I can't sleep.  It's beyond bedtime and I'm remembering a graveside service from this afternoon.  I stopped counting at 115 people who came to the place of Ernestina's final rest on a beautiful spring afternoon.  Combined with the prayer I lead, there were beautiful Spanish songs and heartfelt expressions of sadness and memories.  

In the prayer of farewell, I always stress the promise by Dominican Priest Bede Jarret that "life is unending because love is undying."  And then I repeat it again because I see it as the meaning of all spirituality.  What makes life eternal is that we can love, and love very deeply.  Our faith is that love never dies and we continue to love those who live in the time beyond time.  The Easter promise of the empty tomb is that we will live forever because we love.

I share with you "Who wants to live forever," popularized by The Ten Tenors, Queen, Sarah Brightman and many others.  Words and music by Brian May.

There's no time for us.  There's no place for us
What is this thing that builds our dreams yet slips away from us

Who wants to live forever.  Who wants to live forever....?

There's no chance for us.  It's all decided for us
This world has only one sweet moment set aside for us

Who wants to live forever.  Who wants to live forever?
Who dares to love forever? When love must die

But touch my tears with your lips.  Touch my world with your fingertips
And we can have forever.  And we can love forever

Forever is our today
Who wants to live forever  Who wants to live forever?
Forever is our today

Timeless Lord, we stand in the in-between time of your coming and coming again.  You are the time of new beginnings and the time of forgiven mistakes.   All time is your time in that you are making all things new.

Oh roaring lion of Judah - draw us closer, fold us into you – open our eyes to your presence in us and around us and through us.  For all time, Almighty God is the right time in you.

It was one of those warm March afternoons that tease us into spring.  The flag-draped coffin was mounted in the outside grotto at Quantico Memorial Park.  I’d just finished the prayers of commitment and a young marine was playing taps as a final tribute to Roland’s service to the country.  

I looked across at his wife to see one small tear well up in her eye and streak down her beautiful brown skin.  With such dignity and strength she bore the past days that we all know about but really don't until we walk their jumble minutes and hours.  

My heart so hurt as I saw that tear.  I could feel that it was but the tiniest of a torrent just waiting to overflow.   Of buckets of sadness and anger and hurt and of if only.

My prayer is that she finds comfort in that private place of memories and that the promise of new life begins, in a small way, to bring a spring of peace.

This is a reflection from my personal prayer journal after a funeral that I presided at yesterday.  It was for this amazing, larger-than-life man who embodied holiness.  He was kind, gentle, humble, forgiving, always loving, compassionate.  As I thought about the service and the tremendous outpouring from friends and family, these are my thoughts:

Imagine. . . Image if all that we have been taught about the presence of God as being "in heaven," different from us, always other than us is totally wrong?  What if the incarnation is real -- real like my monthly mortgage payment?  What if God is totally enwrapped in us and we in God (as St. Patrick's Breastplate suggests), now, all the time -- in us and in everyone else in every circumstance and happening (including my mistakes and my hidden shames)?

What if mortal death is an awareness of this realization and a more immediate participation in this ongoing nearness? What if our dead relatives and friends and neighbors and everyone else are still with us (love is eternal), just in a different presence, but still with us? What if the Eucharist that we hold in our hands is just as much about our hands as it is the Sacred Bread?

What if we have taken the stories of Jesus "going up into heaven" and his return in glory (Matt 25) far too literally? What if the question of the "two men dressed in white garments" that we read in the first chapter of Acts is the same question asked of us: "why are you standing there looking at the sky?" (Acts 1:11)

I believe in the Resurrection because every now and then I hear the most amazing stories of how people have come back from the dead.   And that’s the story of Johnny told to me by his soul mate of 37 years.  It seems that there were two Johnny’s.   Johnny #1 was the guy for the first 18 years of their life together.  His wife Cynthia explained, “we had our ups and downs, but mostly downs.”  These were years of “his drinking and drugging and jail.”  

Finally, Cindy told him, “buddy boy, it’s time to straighten up and for us to get married or its over.”  The night they were to meet with the priest to begin marriage preparation, Johnny was a “no-show.”  Cindy said, “I was embarrassed and frustrated, and said that’s it.”  She made Johnny move out the next day.

And that began a six-year break.  But, “Johnny kept on being Johnny.”   As Cindy said, “the problem was he wasn’t a very good dope dealer.”  In his last run-in with the law, the judge who had seen him all too often was determined to teach him a serious jail time lesson.  Johnny pleaded for rehab.  But the judge told him to serve his time, and then he’d think about rehab.  That’s pretty close to a living death.

In prison, Johnny asked himself why he kept ending up in jail and realized that it was to make money.  But he reminded himself that he had a trade – he was brick mason.  He vowed to make it different.  After jail, the judge was true to his word and sent him to a local treatment and recovery program.  

He began “working the steps.”  Step Nine called for him to make amends to anyone he hurt.  The list was long and Cindy was at the top.  She said he sent her a letter owning up to it all, and “it really touched me.”  And then he started coming around the restaurant where she worked.  He wanted to get back together but this time she insisted, “if we get together this is the deal: we’re going to date for a year, then be engaged, and then get married – no living together.  And I want a ring!  And Johnny lived up to the deal.

What followed was an incredible turnaround and 19 years of marriage.  He got a regular 9 to 5 job as a bricklayer and did so much masonary side work that he ended up staring his own company – TCB Masonry – “taking care of business.”  And that’s what he did.

Cindy said the second go around was wonderful.  “He was the greatest man I’ve ever known; he was my hero.”  He turned his life around (we call this “repentance”) and all because of a woman who loved him intensely – like Christ loves us – and demanded more of him.  Not so much tough love as real love.

He made the kind of friends in recovery that are unlike friendships anywhere else.  And he pursued his passion for cars.  He and Cindy traveled the country to “hot rod” auto shows.  

Very recently they discovered that Johnny had cancer, and a rapid strain.  They both knew he was dying and together the made the decision to stop chemo.  Cindy helped him to have time with friends, to say his goodbyes and whatever else needed to be said.

His funeral was filled with lots of their friends and amazing biker-types.  And there was a caravan of 25 hot-rod cars that lead the way to the cemetery.  He was loved.

This is real Christianity and Cindy was Johnny’s Christ.  She was with him every step of the way even when she had to push him out.  And the hand of God was there in the dying and in rising.

Yes, I believe in the Resurrection – I believe that the dead will rise anew.  I hear these amazing stories of incredible people living real lives, suffering and dying, and choosing to rise again.  I see the work of Christ in the Cindys who don’t give up on people – even when they give up on themselves.

Today I officiated at the funeral and graveside service for the most amazing family. Linley Michael was a 72 year-old man who meet his wife Marie in Pakistan.  Like so many wonderful immigrants, they came to the U.S. for a chance at opportunity. Together, they raised six amazing sons.  He died in the loving arms of his wife of 45 years. 

His sons told me of how mom was the “iron first,” letting dad be “the calming waters.”  

The stories they shared were so moving.  They told me of a dad who made them feel so very loved and special.    Who was an amazing prankster.  And a peacemaker, and a never-give-up fighter.  A man generous, and kind.  Who lived life to the fullest even saying to his family, “to hell with poverty.”

He not only provided for his family – sending two sons to private school at their request with a monthly tuition payment bigger than his house payment – but he also raised three children of a relative who lost her husband.

He had great accomplishments.  He was a naval cadet, a pilot earning his solo in record time, and a banker.  But as wonderful as these are, they pale in the sunlight of his self-giving, larger-than-life heart.  

From where I sit, his enormous legacy is six boys who are healthy, loving men -- who were not afraid to hug and console each other and their mom -- as they grieved so deeply.   Men who are loving their wives, respecting woman, and bringing up healthy kids.  

I am the luckiest man on the planet.  I am invited as a trusted friend into the lives of amazing people like these.  I get to give voice to the message of an amazing God who loves us intensely.  Who walks with us – experiencing the great highs and brokenhearted sorrows that life gives.  But always with the promise of the Resurrection.