Funeral Homily for Fr. Greg Daigle

As the time drew near for death to stop for her, the great American mystic poet, Emily Dickinson, wrote her last missive to her relatives. It simply said:
 
Dearest cousins. Called back. Emily.   
 
Nothing more need be said. Time was up. Work was done.  Good-bye it is.  At this moment somehow for us, things do not seem to be so tidy or finished. Too quick. Too young. Too soon. Now, what to do when so much is still left to say?  However, something in me thinks that June 8 went pretty much the way Greg Daigle would have wanted things to be. 

Time to go. Work is done. It is the way it is.  Move on. 
 
In all the particularities of living this man, Gregory Joseph Daigle accomplished a singular task. He left memories of vibrant loving relationships with people of all types, his “dear ones,” leaving the marks of a “life well lived” within relationships that were caring, consoling and generous. 
 
We are left however with an “aftermath."  So much remains unfinished. Do we owe our beloved dead the need to wipe from our memories all that was less than their best, to carry them in our hearts only at their wisest, most compassionate, most creative moments?  Too fast, too quick, too young, too soon. In the end, we think we owe them this - and probably would give it gladly- and even hope for it for ourselves. 

However, let’s not be too quick to remake our dead loved ones in their totality or we will end up with shadow memories endowed with only half-light. Surely, our memories of our loved ones are wide enough to encompass all of our departed loved one’s natures, including the shortcomings and errors that are the human lot. The foibles of our loved ones can provide food for laughter, anger, tears – all the stuff of family bonding.  For instance, Greg still had in his closet his baby blue polyester leisure suit hoping against hope that it would be coming back in style; and you never wanted to ride in the car with Greg Daigle who believed he owned both sides of the road; and his reputation with all things technology left him fuming on another planet. 

If  we allow all the memories we have of  Greg  to sift through the screens of time and the basic love in which we hold one another, what will stay in our minds will be the most endearing, and wisest qualities, with enough fragments of foible and shortcomings remembered in forgiveness and love, to make us all human. 

[Soft piano music begins and plays underneath rest of this paragraph, to introduce Pieta:  https://youtu.be/nzLvpMfMheQ] 

In the remembered images of Gregory, there is room and affection for him in his fullness as a person extraordinaire -- whose being “called back” has left such a hole in our hearts.  These words are the horizon behind all else that is said today.

[Pieta Refrain, Verse One, Refrain; https://youtu.be/nzLvpMfMheQ] 
 
It’s true, I think, that the community of the Catholic Church works best when the experience of being the Church is lived out in more places than within the church building. All pastors long for that awareness to hit home. Greg’s experience of belonging to the church was first rooted within him 66 years ago through the example of his mom and dad.  He absorbed the Catholic faith witnessed by the church communities at St Gabriel and St George. Greg grew up deeply influenced by church life and music, with pastors like Monsignor Louis Marionneaux and Fr. Hubert Brou, who helped shape Greg to be a Catholic man whose religious faith became the home within which his spiritual life deepened. For a while, his talents in music and voice took him to the Metropolitan Opera in New York, opera houses in Delaware and along the eastern seaboard. A promising vocal career for sure; yet there remained within him a restless heart and spirit- that there was something more to life, a bigger stage. Greg later told the story that during those restless years he increasingly felt a call to priesthood which finally prompted him to come back home for a personal visit with Bishop Ott to inquire about becoming a priest. Bishop Ott welcomed the news. However, Greg left that meeting with Bishop Ott still restless in his spirit -- so he told himself, “I need God to give me a sign to be sure.”   That very next weekend Greg went to the actor’s church, St. Malachy's in New York and as Mass began the priest announced, “If any of you here are waiting for a sign, I have it for you today...” Greg later said that he sat up bolt- straight in the pew , in awe of what had just happened; and, what shot through his brain was  how much more  a sign do I need than that ? -- And that, as they say, was that. 

Greg was a priest pastor who loved his people and delighted in their varieties. He was a good shepherd who poured out his heart to his parishioners, sometimes surprising them with song, always being truthful, and suffering with them when the pieces of life’s square pegs would not fit into the round holes being presented, who preached the Gospel that Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, is Lord and Savior. 

Greg was faithful. So, as for the events of Sunday June 8, there would be no other place Fr. Gregory Daigle would have wanted to be while being “called back” than 9:00am Sunday Mass, with his beloved St. John Church. I hope that Greg would have known at that moment of June 8 the wisdom of St. Paul’s message to Timothy: I am already being poured out like a libation, and the time for my departure is at hand… I would also trust that Greg knew that he had competed well; he had finished the race; he had kept the faith. 

The Lord stood by me and gave me strength…and I was rescued from the lion’s mouth…
 
[Soft music begins underneath to the end of this paragraph introducing Pieta; https://youtu.be/nzLvpMfMheQ] 

During all the allusive or searing events of life, Gregory did not walk arrogantly with God. Rather he walked humbly with God whom Greg trusted would not abandon him or ignore him - but who would remain faithful to Greg accompanying him day by day into a future filled with hope. 
 
This is what a good man does. 

[Pieta, Refrain, Verse Two, and Refrain; https://youtu.be/nzLvpMfMheQ] 
 
Discerning what makes a man good, according to the Scriptures, is described in the  first reading from the Prophet Micah: To do the right and to love goodness and to walk humbly with your God. These ways of thinking and acting guided Gregory and countless persons before him, whose relationships with God shaped their whole lives. These ways of thinking and acting flowered into maturity: with compassion, unselfishness, generosity, kindness, courage  -- virtues all -- defining what it means to be an authentic person, to be a man, a son, a brother, an uncle, a spiritual father, a friend. You have known such persons in your life; many of you have treasured these qualities in Greg’s relationship with you. So yes, Fr. Greg was not a perfect priest, but he was faithfully for you. 
 
As the Easter season recedes and we move further away from that epic Paschal event, the story of Jesus meeting his disciples after the Resurrection on the road to Emmaus rises to embrace what we are doing today. The disciples, who are hurrying away from the awfulness of the crucifixion, are inwardly consumed with their grief, anxiety, and fear. They do not recognize their friend Jesus’ presence in the flesh now walking along side of them. The words of this stranger awakens a familiar fire burning in their hearts, but still they do not see past their darkness to know who the stranger really is. 

It was only when Jesus takes the bread and breaks it does the dark glass shatter and fall and they are left to see only Jesus. Then he vanishes from their sight - but not from their hearts and spirits. 

We are likewise filled with many feelings, thoughts, worries, anxieties, and regrets that consume our attention and leave us cold. The words of Jesus are being spoken to us now, to help us “right the ship” and hold on.  And, once again, very soon, the same familiar act that Jesus did, we will do. We will take the bread, break it, the wine and pour it, now the Body and Blood of Jesus Christ. Here in this act of taking, blessing, breaking, sharing you and I can recognize the Lord Jesus in our midst, believing, in faith, that this shared action will bridge the gap between the living and the dead.  Here we can find the courage to do as once what Fr. Gregory Daigle did: become the Christ whom we consume, to be Christ for the life of the world.  Holy Communion satisfied Greg’s hunger for peace, closeness to Christ and closeness with you. At the very same time, we the living can pledge  our union in Christ even while we  remain in our sorrow, choosing to  hope in the resurrection  with Greg, Abel, Patricia , Fr. Jimmy and all of our beloved dead.  
  
You will remember Gregory with thanks for the ways in which he presented himself to you: a priest pastor, a singer of stories that brought you back around to the God who loves you first, a faithful brother; a priest approachable, welcoming and generous. Keep the door to his life open.  Be grateful for what his life has meant to you and nurture that meaning to bear good fruit into the future. Into the nebulous, ongoing mystery of life, welcome, as through an open door, the spirit of Gregory Joseph Daigle, whom you continue to love.
 
[Soft music begins underneath to the end of this paragraph introducing Pieta; https://youtu.be/nzLvpMfMheQ] 
 
May Greg be at peace, and through God’s compassionate mercy may he know his place in God’s heaven.
 
[Pieta, Refrain, Verse Three and Refrain to end; https://youtu.be/nzLvpMfMheQ]