“Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life. I am the bread of life. Your ancestors ate the manna in the desert, but they died; this is the bread that comes down from heaven so that one may eat it and not die.” (John 6:47-50)
All this week, I have been focusing on the issue of faith as it appears in the Discourse on the Bread of Life. Today’s passage raises the issue once again. Faith is the key that opens the door to eternal life.
Here in Chicago, Thursday, April 23, marks the day that we bury our former Archbishop, Francis Cardinal George, O.M.I. His funeral liturgy was broadcast over the major networks here in Chicago as admittance to the funeral Mass was by ticket only. Naturally, the journalists who were covering the funeral liturgy took time to interview some of the people who attended that funeral. Two ladies in particular struck me as I listened to the coverage. They spoke of the funeral as a “joyful” occasion, admitting that one did not usually think of funerals as joyful. One of them simply interjected, “But this is our faith.”
Another comment that was made quoted one of the Prefaces for Funerals, perhaps one of the most common expressions that we hear at funerals. For people of faith, life is changed, not ended.
There were many touching moments in the funeral. One of the most touching was the recessional. The casket carrying Cardinal George’s earthly remains was carried by young priests who were the last to be ordained for the Archdiocese of Chicago. Other young priests came forward and touched the casket as they passed it. The commentator remarked that this gesture continued the connection between these men and their ordaining bishop who had laid hands upon them at their ordinations. This reminded me of a quote from the Funeral Vigil which reminds us that life’s relationships are not “unraveled” by death. Those relationships are still part of our lives because we believe that we shall see one another again.
Jesus reminds us that if we eat His Body with faith, we shall possess eternal life. Faith is indeed the key that opens the door to eternal life where we shall continue to love and praise God and see God face to face. One of the last things that Cardinal George said before he died was that he was looking forward to that very moment when he would see the God whom he had worshipped all his life but never seen.
Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator