Homily for Memorial Mass for Julie Kehoe

Memorial Mass for Julie Kehoe

Juliette Kehoe, longtime principal's secretary at Don Bosco Tech in Paterson, N.J., died on March 27, 2020, at age 103.  Her last principal (1980-1981) was your humble blogger, who was privileged to celebrate a memorial Mass for her.

Aug. 28, 2021
John 19: 17-18, 25-30
Is 25: 6-9
Don Bosco Prep, Ramsey, N.J.                                   

“Standing by the cross of Jesus [was] his mother…” (John 19: 25).

After Jesus’ infancy and the Temple episode when he was 12, our Blessed Mother appears in the gospels only twice, and once in the Acts of the Apostles.  In each of those 3 places, she exercises a helping or supportive role.

Such a role ties in with Don Bosco’s devotion to Mary as Help of Christians and with Julie’s own devotion to Mary, our mother.  It also ties in with the helping and supportive role that Julie played in our lives and the lives of numerous other people.

We all know the story of the wedding at Cana, where the wine ran out.  It was Mary who took notice and pressed Jesus—pressured him, we could say, like a good Jewish mother—to do something about it.  She’s a powerful intercessor, and we pray to her to use her intercessory power on behalf of our Julie.  At the end of that episode, St. John says that thus “Jesus manifested his glory” (2:11).  We pray that his glory be manifest in Julie for eternity, that she may be one of those who “shall shine” at the time of the Lord’s “visitation,” as the Book of Wisdom says (3:7), that she be one of those who “shall dart about as sparks thru stubble.”

(Corpus Christi Church, Port Chester, N.Y.)

We heard today simply that Mary stood by the cross on Calvary.  According to tradition, she’d also accompanied her Son on his way there.  As our helper, she walks with us on our way thru life; she did so with Julie for 103 years, and we are grateful to our mother Mary for that, and to Jesus for giving us so loving a mother (cf. John 19:26-27).  We’re grateful to Julie, too; she stood by so many of us—immediate family, Salesians, boys of DBT, and probably more people than we can count—and yes, she was a mother to us.

In the Acts of the Apostles, we’re told simply that “Mary the mother of Jesus” was among the 120 or so disciples who gathered in the upper room in Jerusalem after the ascension and before Pentecost, “devoting themselves with one accord to prayer” (1:14).  There’s Mary, part of the Christian community, praying with them, and all of them, presumably, praying for one another.  So do we gather here this afternoon, and we’re certain—on Don Bosco’s word—that Mary is here with us in prayer for Julie.

No doubt Julie is praying, too, for us.  If she has reached that mountain of the Lord of which Isaiah speaks (25:6-9), she knows no more tears, no more sorrow; doesn’t know death but rejoices that the Lord has saved her.  And she prays that we’ll come to that happy place—the Salesian garden that we speak of, a special corner of Paradise.

May the Holy Spirit, who came to the Church gathered with Mary in the upper room, console us who’ve lost our mother and friend Julie.  May Julie receive the recompense of God’s good and faithful servants (cf. 2 Cor 5:10).