| FUNERAL MASS OF MIKE KAVANAGH
BEARNA CHURCH 11 MARCH 1991
Introduction:
------------
We have come to say 'goodbye' to him - for a while. We will do
it with dignity in our sorrow.
I welcome everyone who has come to our celebration of the life
and goodness of Mike Kavanagh, husband, father, son, brother,
colleague and dear friend. In particular I welcome the many
people who have travelled from Dublin and elsewhere yesterday or
today.
Everyone who has come is here is a witness to some link, some
loyalty, some love. I thank you, for Una and the family, for the
effort and trouble it cost you to be here. And it is my
privilege, with my fellow priests, to direct that groundswell of
goodness towards Mike and his family in support for them.
So that we may support them better I suggest that we recall that,
even from the day of our birth, we are all on our way through
death to eternity. So we can throw a bridge over death by our
prayer and be united with our friends who are gone beyond.
With that in mind and because we are celebrating the goodness of
his life, we will begin Mass with the blessing of water - which
recalls his baptism. On that day he was made a child of our
heavenly Father. Today his baptism is completed, and our simple
prayer is that the Father will receive his child back into his
loving embrace.
Gospel - "My yoke is easy and my burden is light".
Homily:
We must not try to explain why God calls one person or one family
to bear such a tragedy. We do not know why. But Christ did
promise that he would turn our sorrow into joy. A modern poet,
Gibran, has said that the Master deepens the wooden vessel of our
sorrow so that the measure of our joy may be the greater. We all
pray for Mike's beloved family that, in time, this great promise
will be amply fulfilled.
This is not a day for lingering on the emotional details. These,
beautiful as they are, will form the loving reminders of the book
of the future. Furthermore, I certainly do not intend to use
empty 'holy' words or pious short-cuts. We cannot escape from
the reality that we are bearing a tragedy.
In the face of that tragedy, which we do our best to bear with
them, I offer Mike's family today two gifts - gifts indeed, which
are not mine to give for they already have them and need only be
reminded. The first of these is the beautiful gift of memory.
What a blessed gift that is, by which we can bring before the eye
of the mind at will the beautiful events which have enriched our
bygone days! So, for different people there will be different
memories of him - of his childhood days in the family home in
Inchicore, of his schooldays at Ballyfermot, the carefree days at
Kevin's Street College of Technology, his graduation as a Test
Engineer, and then his years at Digital. Those who knew him well
will agree with me that his work was far more to him that a means
of livelihood: it was a VOCATION in which he was involved with
colleagues as if within a family. And I know that Una and the
family would wish to have a public acknowledgement made of the
truly family-like support given by his Digital colleagues during
the trauma of the past two months.
There is the memory, for Una especially, of a July day in 1977
when they were married in Inchicore; her memory of their time in
Lucan, of a period in the United States, and of coming to Bearna
six years ago. The memory too of the arrival of the children;
the losing of Eoin, and the memory - caught in one of his last
photographs - of Mike holding Eoin in his arms. These are
memories that identify him for us. There were also his two great
recreations - his love for football and especially for the
footballing team, "The Wild Geese" which he did so much to
organise; and his love for music and the guitar with which many
will always picture him. Early on he was a Battles fan; later in
America he was drawn to the popular modern Irish revival - The
Clancy Brothers, Paddy Reilly, The Dubliners. And being a
Dubliner himself, he had a particular liking for "The Rare Oul
Times".
Today we take time to thank God for such memories. And when, on
recurring 24 Julys in the years ahead, Una recalls his promise
"all the days of our lives", I would like her - and anyone in
the congregations who has lost a life's partner - to know of a
personal belief of mine. Although it is just my personal belief
I have been confirmed in it by some clergy and theologians with
whom I have discussed it. My belief is that, when a couple are
joined in truly Christian marriage, and especially when they live
their marriage in real unity as Mike and Una have done, they are
not finally separated at death. I believe that their marriage
continues into eternity; and although we know that it is of a
different quality, I believe that they are forever as man and
wife with God.
So we celebrate his memory - not the memory of what Mike was; but
what he is. And that is my second gift to them - the gift of
their own faith and his faith. They know better than we do how
his faith was tested at the time of little Eoin's death. And how
his faith met and overcame tragedy then. Let that be the cue for
them now.
If any friend or colleague here feels that he or she cannot share
his faith, then firstly I say to you: "Thank you for the
goodness of your coming". I also say that my sincere wish and
prayer for you at this celebration of Mike's goodness is that
through his death you may receive that gift. And, put simply,
that faith is telling us that the Father is taking Mike into his
arms as Mike took Eoin; and they will be together forever with
God.
So we turn to what today's Gospel has said: "My yoke is easy and
my burden is light". Are these cheap "holy" words? Are they a
pious short-cut?
In truth, many of us, must have an initial reaction of shaking
our heads when we hear these words in today's context. Let us
see what they do mean.
The "yoke" in question was the old kind of harness placed across
the animal's shoulders and made of timber. But each yoke was
made specially for the individual animal. The ox was in fact
brought in to the carpenter, who measured the shoulders and then
shaped the timber to fit.
And there was, of course a carpenter at Nazareth who must have
often shaped such harness. So he really knew what the words
meant when he said: "My yoke is easy".
The God in whom I believe did not send or arrange for this
tragedy. But he does ask us to bear whatever tragedies, human
deficiencies, and what we call accidents bring to us in life.
The carpenter will shape that yoke for our shoulders. He will pad
it with faith - with our firm belief that we shall indeed be with
Mike and all with God forever at the end.
I shall presently ask everyone here to join in earnest prayer as
the Prayers of the Faithful are read. To prepare ourselves to
make our prayers sincere, let us keep first a moment of silent
preparation.
Prayers of Faithful:
Priest: God in heaven, we have reminded ourselves that you are
our father. We come in confidence around your table,
tugging your garments, and asking through our sorrow
that you would listen to our prayers:
1. Let us pray for the good person whom we knew and loved as
Mike Kavanagh. Let us ask that all that goodness which we
knew in him may now be rewarded by the Lord.
Lord hear us ...........
2. Let us pray for the people who were closest to Mike in life,
and who still are closest to him in death. We pray
especially for his wife, Una; for his mother Eileen; for his
daughters Linda and Niamh; and for his sisters Anne and Tina;
that God will give them in their different circumstances the
support that each of them now needs.
Lord hear us ...........
3. Let us, who are in sorry today, pray for all who are in
sorrow anywhere in the world. We remember all the victims of the
air-crash in Colorado. We pray for them and for the consolation
of their sorrowing relatives.
Lord hear us ..........
4. Let us pray for Mike's friends, who have been so supportive over
the past few months. We remember his fellow-workers in Digital;
his football colleagues of the "Wild Geese" team; and also the
air-line personnel who were so co-operative ever since the
tragedy. We pray that their own day of sorrow will be lightened
by the help of friends.
Lord hear us...........
5. Let us thank the Lord for the gift of Mike's life, short
though it was; and for all the ways we were enriched by knowing
him. And we ask now for gift of real faith, to really believe
that we shall all meet again.
Lord hear us ...........
Priest: Let us keep silence during which each one of us may say
our own individual prayer for Mike.
Father, we thank you that you hear our prayers. We ask
you to grant us our requests, which we make through your Son,
Christ Jesus, Our Lord, Amen.
Before the final blessing:
A thought has just occurred to me and from it I should like to
make a suggestion. It is very obvious to me that in this church
now are gathered so many people who knew Mike in different ways
and retain different individual memories. I have thought, what a
good thing it would be, if when you return to your homes, you
took the trouble of writing something YOU remember and sending it
back to the family. There might well be memories there of which
they had never known. And, in time, if all were collected into
one book, they would make a rich collection of memories - not
only for Una, but also for Linda and Niamh, to keep his life and
character alive always for them.
************************************
If you wish to respond to the above sugestion Una's address is
Mrs Una Kavanagh
Cappagh Road
Barna
Co Galway
Republic of Ireland
Also you might like to write a few words to Fr Morahan. He
obviously put a lot of thought into the service. During the
homily I regretted my own wife was not there, as her brother had
died exactly one month earlier, and she would have
been consoled by the service. Since I knew that many other
people who could not have been there, would have liked to hear
the homily, I asked Fr Morahan for a copy. He had
not written out the original sermon, but willingly agreed to write
it out from his notes.
Fr Morahan's address is
Very Rev Leo Morahan PP
Bearna
Co Galway
Republic of Ireland
|