Homily Funeral Mass Fr. John O'Shea

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

October 8, 2003

Most Reverend José H. Gomez
Auxiliary Bishop of Denver

Archbishop Chaput, my brother priests, my sisters and brothers in Christ,

Once again we are faced with the Mystery of Death. A painful mystery that comes unexpectedly, giving us the sorrow of losing our loved ones and that makes us to look for refuge in our faith. From the Preface of today's Mass: "Lord for your faithful people life is change, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven"

Today we have a sense of peace because we know that God has rewarded Fr. John with eternal life, but at the same time, we feel the sadness of losing him as a brother, father, friend and for many of us an inspiration in the vocation as priests.

It is true that we should accept the sadness we feel today, because grief is a gift from God. Grief is a reminder to be thankful for the gift of life and for the gift of each other. But as our grief passes -- and it will -- we can't really be sad for Fr. John How can we be sad for a man who is now with the God he loved, and the wife and sons he loved? How can we be sad for a man who had and has what he always wanted? Eternal life!

The first reading of today's Mass from the book of the Prophet Isaiah, reminds us that God has the power to destroy death: "On this mountain he (The Lord of hosts) will destroy the veil that veils all peoples ... he will destroy death forever. The Lord God will wipe away the tears of all faces"

Then, death is just the beginning of our real life: "For others, death is a stumbling block, a source of terror. For us death -Life- is an encouragement and stimulus. For them it is the end; for us, the beginning". The Way, 738

But today is also a day to give thanks to God for life, especially for the life of Fr. John.

Life that is a gift of God. The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that "Each person is responsible for his life before God, who gave it to him ... We are obliged to receive it with gratitude and to preserve it for his honor and the salvation of our souls. We are the stewards and not the owners of the life which God has entrusted to us"

As we remember Fr. John's life we would like to say the words of St. Paul in the 2nd reading of today's Mass: "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith ..."

Every life is a real gift of God and Fr. John's was too. It became even more evident by the fact that he was recently granted the gift of the priesthood, after receiving many other gifts throughout his life: his faith, his education, his wife and children.

Many times in the last few months, he said to us that, for sure, God had a plan for him, sometimes for him and for all of us it was not clear what was God's plan, but today I can say that if we just learn the value of the gifts of life, faith and family, there is no doubt that God had a very especial plan for Fr. John's life.

It was difficult for him to understand why people were so interested in the latest developments of his life; for him pursuing the call to the priesthood was just doing God's Will. Now that we have gone through the experience of his illness and his death, we should stop, reflect and learn from God's plan for Fr. John.

Msgr. Jones, his classmate and friend, said that his life was special because "as a policeman, he worked with people, after he got a degree in psychology he worked with people. He was really looking forward to working with people as a Priest. He wanted to be a good priest"

I think that his life was special because he had faith in God and he learned how to love. Isn't just that what today's Gospel is all about? Jesus giving his life to the end, out of love for us and as a Redemption for our sins: "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour had come to depart out of this world to the Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end" St. Jn. 13, 1 says in his Gospel.

Fr. John was especially interested, since he became a Priest, to celebrate the Holy Mass. When he received his assignment to the Cathedral from Archbishop Chaput, he talked to me about it and he wanted me to assure him that he would be able to say daily Mass. He knew that the Mass is the renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary and makes present for us the infinite love that God has for us.

One day, as he was coming out of the Sacristy, I asked him how he was doing. He said I'm fine and he added something like, 'I am the happiest person in the world because I just said Mass'

As we know, every husband/father receives as much as he gives; learns as much as he teaches; is forgiven as much as he forgives. That's why we call the family a "school of love."

Humility, sacrifice, courage, forgiveness, wisdom, patience, unselfish love -- these are the qualities that separate a man from a boy and make a human being really "human"; these are the qualities a man learns in devoting himself to his wife and children.

It's easy to love humanity; it's a very different, richer, much more demanding and much more rewarding thing to love another person -- let alone, 11 of them: His wife, Barbara and his 10 children.

Life is about loving people and allowing other people to love us. Love is going out of our way to make life better for others. Real love is not selfish, on the contrary, it is self-giving. Therefore, there is a logic to Fr. John's life that outsiders may not understand. Once you learn how to love, it's hard to stop. That's why Fr. John became a priest, to keep loving as he had been loved; to forgive others as he had learned how to forgive

At root, marriage and priesthood are not so very different. To live each well, you have to be willing to love, to forgive, to sacrifice yourself. It's no accident that the way the Church thinks about the priesthood is very closely related to the way she thinks about marriage. A priest is to the Church as a husband is to his wife; a priest is to God's people as a father is to his children. Both vocations demand everything. Neither vocation is for the weak. And only a strong and good man like Fr. John could do both as well as he did.

Life is never over until it's over. Fr. John lived and loved for every minute of his. He never retired from the challenges and the joys of life. He was successful in many things but he also made mistakes but he had the courage of asking for forgiveness and beginning again. Thus, Fr. John is a witness to the fact that we never run out of opportunities to lead other people to God.

His priesthood is the final, beautiful piece that completes the mosaic of his life. And his priesthood goes on forever, just as his love for his wife and his children go on forever.

What remains to us is to remember his life, and thank God for it, and learn from it -- so that the love and the joy he found in his life and his faith, his family and his priesthood, can also be ours.

"May eternal light shine on them, O Lord, with all your saints for ever, for you are rich in mercy. Give them eternal rest, O Lord and may perpetual light shine on them for ever, for you are rich in mercy" Communion Antiphon.