Keith was a man ministered to by St. Robert parishioners at one of the nursing homes in our local area. He’d had a very hard life, and he had no one except his parish family. He had no money. His only wish was, when he died, that he did not want to be cremated.
After he passed in April, our Director of Pastoral Care, Katie Mendenhall, visited the nursing home to pray with his body. The nursing home staff informed her that the funeral home was on the way to get his body and cremate him. Apparently, when you are poor, you “lose” the right to have a traditional burial. But we pulled some strings and said some prayers, and were able to give Keith his wishes.
Katie was fully anticipating that only Father Weber and the three others who’d ministered to Keith would be present at his funeral. But when word about Keith reached some of our parishioners, almost every ministry leader at our parish showed up. Some of the school students with their teachers came. Other parishioners came. This is what it means to be a parish family! At the end of the funeral, several of our ministry leads carried Keith’s casket out of the church and placed it in the hearse. An image, Katie says, she’ll never forget.
“One of the corporal works of mercy which we are called to carry out as baptized Christians is to bury the dead. Corporal means “body,” so whose body were we caring for with this funeral Mass that spring day? On the one hand, we were caring for our brother Keith, carrying out his only wish – for a traditional burial – as he departed from this world to meet our Lord. But on the other hand, we were caring for the body of Christ, and that is what the corporal works of mercy are all about.
The corporal works of mercy take very seriously our Lord’s challenging words near the end of St. Matthew’s Gospel. Christ spoke of that judgement day, when He will welcome into his kingdom those who cared for “the least of his brothers,” since when they cared for those brothers, they cared for Him. What do we say and believe when someone is baptized? We say that they are now incorporated, brought into the mystical body of Christ. Keith challenged us all with a great gift that day. Keith gave us an opportunity to care for the body of Christ as we performed these fraternal offices of burial for him.“—excerpts from the homily at Keith’s funeral.
Our parish’s Samaritan Fund helps ensure that no one has to go without a proper burial due to financial hardship. Won’t you join us in ensuring works of mercy like this can continue? Please make your gift at the link below.
Questions? Please contact the parish office: ParishOffice@strobertchurch.org, or (616) 676-9111.
