On behalf of myself and Fr. Garry Richmeier, who I know would really, really like to be here and the leadership of this parish: Fr. Don Farnan, who also could not be here – and Pat Marrin and the parishioners of St. James on behalf of Bishop Johnston, and the Deacon community of our diocese I wish to extend to you, most of all Nata, Our deepest and sincerest sympathies on the loss of your husband, Ross. For 58 years as a couple, you enjoyed your good times and bad times and then had the extra burden of the good times and bad times Ross endured in his various ministry assignments: at St. Mark, St. Thomas More, and here at St. James and at the Chancery.
And throughout it all, you were the quiet, steady support he valued and needed. Thank
you for your generosity in sharing Ross with the Church. And to Ross’ family – Tom; Martina and you children, and to Ann, John, and Stephen, You too, made your sacrifices – especially of time that Ross devoted himself to others and was absent in the evenings because of meetings and classes and other business of the parishes he served.
We hear it said that it takes a village to raise a child but it takes a very supportive family to raise a deacon. Thank you for sharing your father with the Church. Ross was a gift we all gratefully received.
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you, those are not just words we will soon be singing, but it is the shortest possible description of Ross’ life. He had a servant’s heart as deacons are called to have. As is stated in the Prayer of Ordination for deacons: “May they remain strong and steadfast in Christ, so that by imitating on earth your Son, who came not to be served, but to serve, they may be found worthy to reign in heaven with Him.” Ross always knew he was in the hand of God, as he faithfully served so many people, but now especially so, as he imitated the servant heart of Christ so well he is now found worthy to reign in heaven with Christ. He lived as Pope Leo recently challenged us all to live in his recent apostolic exhortation: “live out Christ’s radical love through compassion, unity, and care for the vulnerable. ..”
Join me this time: Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you.
Also in the Ordination Rite, when the Bishop hands the book of the Gospels to the newly
ordained deacon, he does so with these words: “Receive the Gospel of Christ, whose herald you have become. Believe what you read, teach what you believe, and practice what you teach.”
Not only was Ross a good teacher, but he did, indeed, practice what he taught. I was privileged to minister with Ross for 2 ½ years at the parish of St. Mark. I don’t want to say I didn’t learn anything from my pastor, Fr. Jim Healy, but I mostly learned from Ross, who was very patient with me. Because I was fresh out of the monastery after being a priest for 5 years, but I had never had a Baptism, nor a wedding, nor a funeral, had never anointed anyone, or worked on an annulment, or preached on a regular basis. Ross walked me through all those rituals and procedures, but most all, just taught me to be present with people in the moment.
He invited me to be part of the RCIA process, the men’s prayer breakfast, encouraged
me to start a grief support group, to be involved in the ministerial alliance - much later invited me to give retreats to deacon candidates, and invited me to minister in a place that he loved so much Anapra, Mexico. Estella, one of the long-term leaders of that community texted me: “Ross sure did lots of good. He left his prints on Anapara and on our hearts. Our lives were blessed by him.” I am sure many people here and throughout our diocese can echo her words,our lives were blessed by him. . .
Ross was synadodal, way ahead of the time of the Church, he knew that many hands
make the work light, and that it takes many dedicated hearts to build the kingdom of God, and so he invited, encouraged, supported, and at times, even challenged countless people to become part of that kingdom building experience.
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you.
For as long as I have known him, some 31 years, Ross always wore glasses, but he had
the clearest and keenest vision, he saw so clearly Christ in the pool, in the captives that needed to be set free, those in need who had to experience the Lord’s favor, and always sought ways to ease the burdens and the pains that others were carrying.
Nada said Ross was always listening for the knock of Jesus at the door. . . And he never
seemed to grow weary of opening that door time and time again, ready to embrace or help the Christ he found on the other side. And although I know he had his bad days, as we all do, he never let that stop him or even slow him down to do what needed to be done.
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you.
I was privileged to visit with Ross the Wednesday before he died. He very quickly told me how Fr. Garry was leaving for Rome the next day, and so he said, you are a real blessing to me today because I want you to have my funeral, if Fr. Garry is not back. And I said, oh Ross, Garry will be back soon enough. And he said no, I’m going to die within the next couple of days and he did! We reminisced about some good times and some bad times. He said how much he missed Raymond Boland, and then told some stories I had never heard about how he got here to St. James, by way of what he called Bishop Boland’s “take out window” approach to things. Ross said when he was working at the Chancery as director of deacon formation, he was leaving one day, walking across the parking lot. As Bishop Boland was leaving in his car at the same time, he rolled down his window and said, Ross I want you to think about taking on St. James parish as the administrator. And Ross said he would think about it. Even though they saw each other in the chancery many times after that, It wasn’t until a few weeks past - -and the same thing happened, both were leaving, Bishop Boland rolled down his window and said, well, have you thought about it?
Ross said, yes, I’ve thought about it, and I will do it. Good, Bishop said, let’s come up with a date when I can install you, because I want everyone to know you have my backing.
Weeks later, As Bishop Boland was leaving the installation ceremony, he rolled down his
window once again and said, as only Bishop Boland could, “Ross, for God’s sake get this
parking lot fixed!” And the rest, as we say, is history.
Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you.
The Jesuit, Father Pedro Arrupe, who at one time was the superior general of the Jesuits, composed a prayer near the end of his life, which Ross lso enjoyed praying.
It says: “More than ever I find myself in the hands of God. This is what I have wanted all my life from my youth. But now there is a difference: the initiative is entirely with God. It is indeed a profound spiritual experience to know and feel myself totally in God’s hands.”
Yes, Ross, my friend and good and faithful servant to many, you are now totally in God’s
hands.
And so this truly is a time of thanksgiving, when we turn to our loving and merciful God and thank him for the gift of Ross’ unique, one-of-a -kind, unrepeatable life, a life we were blessed not only to witness, but also to share. But even more important as Christians whenever we gather at Mass, at this Eucharistic table, we thank our God for the gift of His Son who gave his life for us. For without this gift, we would have no hope: no hope of forgiveness, no hope of mercy, no hope of salvation, no hope of eternal life. It is because of this gift that we can gather here today and not be consumed by grief. Because of this gift, we don’t despair. Because of this gift, we can go on, we can continue with our own lives knowing that Ross, and you and I have all been redeemed by our Lord, Jesus Christ. Ross’ was a life well lived.
He savored that life, that gift, and accepted its challenges and joys and yes, he also accepted the pain and suffering that continued to intensify in his last weeks of life. And so today we ask our Lord Jesus to take Ross, his “good and faithful servant” into his loving embrace, to take away the pain, to wipe away the tears and give him the first taste of that eternal joy we all hope to share. When we, too, will be surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses.
But for now we must all sing, but more importantly, become those servants God calls us all to be. This time using the complete refrain: Will you let me be your servant, let me be as Christ to you. . . Pray that I may have the grace to let you be my servant, too.