As the funeral for our dear friend, Father Walker, draws nearer, our hearts are heavy, yet at the same time our faith comforts us.

We’ve heard it, we believe it….there is a plan in everything that happens in our life. God is bigger than our minds can perceive and we have to, at times, lean on that understanding, when our emotions are pulling us this way and that.

Isn’t it true? This life is so passing…..a grain of sand in the beaches of eternity. How hard it is at times to not cling to this life and all the people we hold so dear.

God, in His infinite mercy, slowly (and sometimes not so slowly) pulls us away from the transitory things of life.

God asked much of Tom and Amy Walker, our dear friends. How much He is going to reward them!! And they are stalwart in the faith. They have made many of their decisions (big and small) in the context of their Catholic convictions.

I have read the words by Father Flood and Father Berg and they are so beautiful. They have captured the spirit of Fr. Walker so well.

He had “no guile”. Fr. Flood says, “He was very honest, courteous, kind, and I know even now he would not want me to extol him much more from the pulpit. He would say, ‘talk about why I am a priest.'”

and…

 “If Fr. Walker would have been asked as a seminarian studying for the priesthood, ‘If you knew one day that as a priest you would be killed at a young age, would you still pursue the priesthood?” said Fr. Flood, “His answer, of course, would have been ‘yes, even to say Mass just once.’”

Tom and Amy are blessed parents to have had a son like Father Walker, a priest with “no guile”, and now to have him praying for them and their family on the other side of life is an incredibly comforting gift!

May we be able to say the same for ourselves, that our decisions in this life will reflect our faith, that our children will reflect our faith and that our eternal reward will be waiting for us in the end. May we keep our eyes on that Eternal Goal as we suffer some of the blows of life, knowing that it is very short…..very, very short.

I have often told my kids the story of St. Teresa of Avila, who, when a child of only five, could be seen off by herself repeating the word, “Eternity…..eternity….eternity…” She was so mesmerized by the idea of the everlasting, the never-ending….to think that our souls will never end and we will live on forever after this vale of tears! It is an awesome meditation.

Back to the funeral, etc. Things will be hectic this weekend. We also have our Traditional Family Weekend starting tomorrow (Friday). It seems strange that the funeral and our festivities are back-to-back. We will start the Family Weekend the same day of the Funeral.

I asked Tom and Amy if we should cancel the Weekend and they both agreed that Father Walker would have not wanted it so. He was a great supporter of our Weekend and the gathering of the families. So we are going forward and it will be dedicated to him. It will be bittersweet….

So I am taking a break and I will “see” you all again shortly.

Father Walker, pray for us.