a weight of glory?

Homily

Funeral Mass for Janet Copeland

Immaculate Conception Parish in Springfield, Missouri

13 February 2024

AMDG

Affliction produces a weight of glory, something so glorious that Jesus calls it a yoke that is easy and light!

St. Paul writes well of this experience of a soul being purified through suffering, through the process of conformation to the mystery of the Lord's holy cross.  For Jan, this happened in a particular way, for every human story is a unique, and precious one.  The outer self wasted away, and at times it can feel like a waste.  Yet there is a faith proposed that turns this agonizing process into a weight of glory, a renewal of the inner self, the purification of a soul until it shines like a diamond, a participation in the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus Christ that redeems all things and makes them new.

Jesus accompanies us, most blessedly and surely in the Holy Eucharist, and as our bodies slowly and surely participate in a death like His, He invites us to come to Him, those of us tired and burdened with the responsibility of living a worthy life, and begs that we might do it together.  In the Eucharist, which Jan was blessed to receive at the end of this process and journey, Jesus abides with us and for us, until His paschal mystery is accomplished.

It is finished!   There is rejoicing that Jan has rest from her labors!   Jan's story of faith has been written, and it ends in a weight of glory, in a love story that produced good fruit that remains forever.

Praised be Jesus Christ, who has invited us all to this yoke that is easy, and a burden that is light, for we do it always and forever together, through Him who strengthens us.  Amen!