Homily for the Funeral Mass of Cody Ringsmuth

+ J. M. J. +

Homily for the Funeral Mass of Cody Ringsmuth (obituary)

It may sound strange, but for me as a priest and as a man it is a privilege to be with you, Cody’s family and friends. We gather here this morning in the aftermath of a terrible choice, a true tragedy, his decision to take his own life. There is almost nothing that is more painful, in my own family we lost my Uncle Paul to suicide as well, so I know a little bit from the inside the terrible pain you are experiencing today.

I was speaking yesterday with a very wise and experienced retired priest friend of mine, and he gave me some very good advice as I was preparing to preach to you today. In a moment like this, our hearts cry out for answers, “Why?” We cannot help but ask this question, and if we are wise, we turn to the Lord for answers… but the Lord doesn’t give us an answer in the face of death and suffering. He doesn’t explain it all so that it all makes sense. This is not to say that He abandons us, far from it, but He doesn’t give us exactly what we think we want.

God gives us something different, stranger, better. We turn to the Word of God in the face of life, and in the face of death, and we find no answer there, but rather the Lord’s response. In our first reading, we hear from the Book of Revelation and John describes a new heaven and a new earth. He describes heaven, eternal life, and it is beautiful to behold.. God will dwell with us, and we will be his people. He will wipe every tear from our eyes, there will be no more dearth. Our thirst for peace and for God will be satisfied with springs of life-giving water. This is God’s promise to us, the gift that He longs to give us, if we will but accept… eternity with Him, in all of His beauty and splendor. We cannot live or understand this life fully or well except in the light of this truth… this mortal world is not the whole story, our weak and fallibly body mind and soul is not the whole story! Death, however final it may seem, is not the whole story.

Perhaps very many of us here believe this truth, at least on some level. Perhaps some of us want to believe this truth, that there is more to life than this world. That does not, however, remove the struggle and battle of this life. In our second reading from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, St. Paul describes this battle, “All creation is groaning in labor pains even until now; and not only that, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, we also groan within ourselves as we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.” In Jesus Christ we have become the adopted sons and daughters of God by our baptism. If you haven’t received that gift, God desires you to receive it. By baptism we are grafted into Christ, into His death, and into His resurrection. It is this truth that gives us hope in the face of death, in the face of sorrow, in the face of despair.

We must not minimize the destruction wrought by Cody’s death, for that will bring us no peace. We know too viscerally today that wound… rather we turn to a God who is bigger than all of our sins, more beautiful than our worst ugliness. We trust not in ourselves, for we are weak. We trust not in our good deeds, for in the face of death they are small. Rather, we trust in God, our Loving Father.

In our Gospel today we encounter not God’s answer to suffering and death, but His response. On the Cross Jesus took upon Himself, Jesus who is Himself God, He took upon Himself our sorrow, our wounds, even very mysteriously our despair. Did Cody despair in making the choices that he did? Jesus has already been there… on His own lips were the words that perhaps dwell in our hearts right now, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” To paraphrase G.K. Chesterton, if there was ever a God for atheists, or for those of us who are tempted to doubt or despair in the midst of tragedy, it is Jesus Christ, who Himself uttered those words, “My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?”

In Jesus Christ, God gave us no answer, no formula, no theory… God came Himself, He taught, He healed… He suffered, He sweat blood, He cried out. Cody has died, and soon will be buried, and Jesus was there before him, in death, and in the tomb. Jesus has borne every burden for us already, He has walked through the dark valley. Our God is no far off deity, but God for us, God with us, Emmanuel.

At this Mass, at this Eucharist, we entrust Cody into God’s perfect mercy, infinite beyond imagining. We offer the most perfect sacrifice, the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, and Jesus’ self-offering on Calvary becomes present to us at this altar, and once again Jesus comes to us hidden under the appearance of bread and wine. We do not understand, but God is with us now. We entrust Cody into His hands, we give thanks for the blessings in Cody’s life, and we pray too for ourselves. We are weak, we may well be close to despair… but God is near, He is with us, He has walked through these shadows ahead of us. May we follow Him to the Cross, to the Tomb… and to the Resurrection, to Eternal Life.

May God’s mercy shine upon Cody, who was baptized into His death and resurrection. May God’s mercy shine upon Cody who ate the Body of Christ, the Bread of Life. May God’s mercy shine upon us who grieve his death.

+ A. M. D. G. +