Homily for Memorial Mass
of Bro. Gerry Gremley,
CFC
Sept. 13, 2022
Eccl 3: 1-8
Ps 103: 1-4, 8-9,
13-14, 17-18
Christian Brothers, St.
Joseph’s Home, New Rochelle
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“There is an appointed time for everything” (Eccl 3: 1).
That famous passage from Ecclesiastes 3 is beloved
of many people; partly, I suppose, because of its poetic nature, partly because
it resonates with our human condition, partly because it’s a paean to wisdom
and prudence.
A wise and prudent person knows how to
balance most of the elements in the passage:
planting and weeding and reaping; mourning and celebrating; silence and
speech; even war and peace. Part’s of
Bro. Gerry’s biography suggest he had a share of such wisdom, and his eulogist
Bro. Varilla seems to wish he’d manifested it more often. (Maybe a lot of our confreres would say the
same about us.)
A wise and prudent person also knows his
limits and recognizes what’s not in his power.
Ecclesiastes puts right up front birth and death. No one chooses his own biological birth.
We do, however, have a say in our spiritual
birth, in our acceptance of new birth in Jesus Christ. Most of us were brought to the baptismal font
in our mother’s arms (or perhaps a godmother’s), and had no choice in the
matter. But we did have later choices by
which we ratified someone else’s initial choice. In fact, we’re supposed to ratify the choice
daily: to choose Jesus Christ and the
life he offers. Every day is a time to
be born anew.
Every day is likewise a time to
die—obviously, not in a literal or biological sense, and not in a fatalistic
one either. But each confrere’s passing
away is a reminder of our own mortality.
“And therefore never send to know for whom
the bell tolls; It tolls for thee.”
Each day is a time to memento
mori, the ancient spiritual practice of keeping death before the eyes of
our mind as a help to come to our last day in peace—in the sense of trying to
live virtuously, and also in the sense of recalling our Father’s compassion,
“for he knows how we are formed; he remembers that we are dust” (Ps 103:14);
and in the confidence that our Lord Jesus has gone ahead of us “to prepare a
place for” us (John 14:2).
May our brother Gerry land
happily in that place, by God’s grace and with the help of our prayers.
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