In John’s Gospel today (14:23-29) we hear again of the great love that God has for His creation, especially for His image and likeness imprinted on mankind. Jesus states that, "whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our dwelling with him." At the end of the Catholic funeral Mass, the priest leaves the altar and with incense goes to the casket while the cantor sings the prayer of final commendation, In Paradisium, incensing the remains of the deceased because our faith teaches that while we live and breathe—doing the Will of God—we are the dwelling place of His Holy Spirit. We believe that just as at the consecration of the bread and wine (when the priest incenses) at Mass and God’s Holy Spirit transforms those earthly elements into His Sacred Body and Blood, so too does God’s Holy and Great Spirit enter into us and makes us His light and love in the world.
We see examples of this each and every day, in large and in small acts of charity, in offering hope, and in being with others in difficult as well as in joyous times, we become Christ to someone in need by the power of God’s Spirit. In the last few weeks I have witnessed, through the eyes of family members, this transcending Spirit of God at work in people at the funerals which I have celebrated. In Jennifer Horn, a young woman offered her gifts and talents to help inner-city children become the potential that God made them to be but that society refused to notice, offering them hope and respect. In Gail Nevins, a woman of quiet but powerful faith who saw her family as the most important thing in her life, and worked in for-eign missions caring for children. Michael Macbeth, a young man who defended the marginalized and sought to bring joy and hope into the lives of family and friends, considering always the feelings of others above and beyond his. Matthew Melanson, a young veteran who saw the horrors of war and wanted to be a man who would work to build up his country and community, serving others without regard to his needs and desiring to care for his family. These are unsung heroes and heroines who in simple yet im-portant ways allowed the love of Christ—not matter what they called it—to dwell within them. They heard, in their own ways, the Word of God and allowed that Word to form them and transform them into His light and love in their families, communities, and their world. This is what today’s Gospel speaks to us about—hearing His Word and then letting that Word form in usa dwelling place for His love.