I did
want to say a little bit about the funeral.
It was in Ganado, Texas. Don’t
even ask where that is. It shows up on
the GPS in my phone, so we found it with no trouble, but it is one of those
places that you have to be going to or you’d never find it. The service itself was an interesting blend
of traditional Catholic ritual and contemporary guitar-led praise and
worship. Catholics don’t normally do
open casket funerals, but in this case, the casket was open – in the foyer
right as you walked into the front door.
Never seen that one before. Well
done. Aunt Becky would love to be the
one shocking everyone, not to mention being in the middle of the action.
The
start to the service proved a point I have been making ever since I switched
over to Baptist life from my Episcopalian heritage. If I had known what some of the rituals meant,
I might have stuck around, because they can be really beautiful. Kind of pointless, though if you don’t know
what’s going on. So, they did close the
casket when it came time for the service to begin. As the priest talked about being covered with
the Holy Spirit, several grandkids draped a cover over the casket. As he said something about the Word of God,
one of them placed a big family Bible on top, and as he talked about Jesus
being the savior of the world, they placed a small crucifix on the casket as
well. Now, not many people could see all
that, and of the ones who could, it didn’t seem that many of them made the
connection to what he was saying, but it was pretty cool nonetheless.
The
service itself had all the required elements of the Catholic mass, right down
to a time of communion. It was
interlaced with some singing, though, that was quite contemporary, although the
tempo was pretty slow. The guy on guitar
had written some catchy music for the required responses by the congregation. Nice job with that. Kept the group engaged and not so much on
auto-pilot. Speaking of which, there was
obviously a lot of auto-pilot going on.
You could tell who the Catholics in attendance were by the way they “just
knew” what to say and when to say it. I
hope I can be successful in communicating why we do what we do at Seaside. I really want the worship experience to be
meaningful to everyone there.
Graveside
was pretty traditional, except that the wind was blowing and the little
munchkin trying to hold the book for the priest wasn’t tall enough and his
hands weren’t big enough to hold on to the book and keep the pages open as
well. Made for a challenge for the
priest. He handled it well enough,
though. He took the kid’s hands and
placed them where he wanted them.
Probably wasn’t too comfortable for the kid, but that’s why they call it
“serving” when you are an acolyte. Yes,
that’s the voice of experience. Remember, I was an altar boy back in my
Episcopalian days.
Psalms
116:15 says, “Precious in the sight of
the Lord is the death of his saints.”
Certainly so was the case with Aunt Becky. May she be remembered in that light.
And Psalms
22:10 says, “From birth I was cast upon
you; from my mother's womb you have been my God.” May Loghan and Lawsen’s Mom and Dad learn to
cast the boys upon God so that they may always have a sense of his protection
and love.
Father, thank
you for the sense of victory at Aunt Becky’s funeral. And thank you for the joy and excitement at
the birth of the Hill boys. Amen.
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