For Agnes C

Celebration of the Life of Agnes C

Love is amazing. It is the greatest human privilege to experience it and explore it. It is the greatest gift that God has given to us - as we grow in faith, we grow in love. Love transforms our lives; it refines and redefines our lives. When love makes its home in the core of our being, it changes us - we are never the same. With love touching and changing our lives, our being becomes like a jewel; it shines with a splash of new colour, previously unknown and now unforgettable.

The love that has been freely given to us never ends; it continues its journey like light, which traverses from one end of the universe to the other. When that light starts its journey from a star, even one far from our own galaxy, its speed is steady, its wavelength is set. When it reaches the earth, some of the particles reach us; the others continue, passing our planet. Either way, all the light particles continue their travel on the earth and in all known and unknown places, unseen, unstopped, unchanging, open to and through the universe’s holy time of the eternal. Love works in the same way light travels. It never ends; it lives in the lives of those who have been touched and will touch others when they show love, and act out of love. Love binds us all and opens us all.

We know what it is like to be loved unconditionally and accepted; this love is the sacred place where we find ourselves over and over. This love has the divine spark. Christian faith proclaims that we are all born with a true capacity for love; we all shine like a precious gem. Love calls us all to participate in the process of being and becoming.

When I first met Agnes last October, at her bedside in Victoria General Hospital, Agnes delightfully welcomed and hugged me. The colour of the red, wooly sweater she wore was as cheerful and bright as her spirit. When I read the third chapter of Ecclesiastes for her, she used her whole strength to lean toward me so that she could be as close as possible and hear me reading. If you can imagine, during the next few minutes, she tried to sit up as straight as she could, even in her frailty. I have never been good at “sitting up straight”, even when I was an elementary school student, so I know how very hard it is to keep one’s body upright and unmoving for four minutes. Agnes, however, did it without any complaint and with an impressive loving attention. Agnes responded to each word with such welcome. Her two eyes - excitingly awake - didn’t lose their focus on my face. All the ways that Agnes related to a strange minister she met for the first time were just astounding. That’s how she treated everyone she met in her life: with kindness, welcome, and truly genuine attention. I believe that such welcome and unconditional acceptance and her bright, cheerful and truthful spirit are what gather us all here as we remember her and celebrate her life and the precious gifts that she’s given us so freely.

Our reading for this morning shares that there is a season for everything: a time for giving birth. A time for dying. A time for tears. A time for laughter. A time for mourning. A time for dancing. There is also a time for love, the love which has the closest resemblance to God’s love, unconditional, life-giving and life-transforming - the constant stream that refreshes all seasons, in all lives.

I have recently learned a song that was composed by Weston Priory, a group of Catholic monks who write and sing music based on monastic tradition. When I first read it, it reminded me of the very warm time I had with Agnes and her daughter M last October. I hope that the words allow us a moment to remember Agnes, who is now on a beautiful journey of light, whose time is with the Holy One of the Eternity, surrounded by the steady beam of God’s blessings and God's awesome breadth of love.

When Someone We Love  (Weston Priory)

When someone we love so carefully grows

With courage and struggle to let love be their home.

We sing, yes, we dance and share our delight

To witness such beauty and a strength, oh, so right.

We love you dear friend, and we treasure your life.

We tenderly hold you in the palm of our hands.

The joy that you’ve found is gift for us all,

It glows like the velvet of a crystal moonlight.

Over the years the choices you’ve made

Have clothed you with freedom to nurture, to heal.

We love you dear friend, and we treasure your life.

we tenderly hold you in the palm of our hands.

And as we move on to horizons of light,

We hope for each other, drink deeply of life,

To know and to love, to choose and to share

This is the garden where happiness dwells.

We love you dear friend, and we treasure your life,

We tenderly hold you in the palm of our hands.

Amen.