Mount Union Cemetery, August 13, 2021
It’s odd and sad that we are here today, over two years later,
long after Robert’s funeral mass.
I’ve never had this experience before.
It’s as if we have to bury this man we all loved
not just once but twice.
We have to face the grief again and the loss.
But I’ve been thinking about this,
and more and more I think it’s also a great gift.
Because it reminds us of what a good, good man he was.
It reminds us that our sadness is always with us
and so he is always us. He is never gone.
Our sadness is sacred. It’s a sign.
And if in committing his ashes to the ground
we renew our grief,
we also renew our hope. Our faith.
Today we have been given a chance to feel more
deeply, in a new, quieter, steadier way,
what he most deeply believed,
that God is always with us
and all, all, shall be well.