Homily - Thursday 2015/07/09

Homily  - Thursday 2015/07/09

Funeral Vigil - Generoso Ritua (My Father-in-law) To and From

Readings: 2 Corinthians (5:1, 6-10) Our body is a tent

                 John  (13: 33a, 34-35; 14: 1-6, 18-20) In my Father's house there are many dwelling places

      As I was writing my homily, I was watching Fr. Greg Boyle, who founded, a gang intervention ministry in Los Angeles called Home Boy Industries. He was giving a commencement speech to the graduates of Gonzaga University based on a quote he credited to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. that says that “Church is not a place you go to, but a place you go from.” Much like college is not someplace you go TO but some place you go FROM.

          It made me think about the places I have been TO and FROM. When I left my childhood home, I said I was going TO boot camp. From there, I went TO Pensacola, then TO San Diego. But each of those places had a profound impact on my life, and each prepared me for the next as I went FROM them. My childhood prepared me for boot camp, boot camp prepared me for Crypto school, Crypto school prepared me for my ship that awaited me in here in San Diego. For every place we go TO there is some place we are going FROM.

Gene, Dad, Grandpa, G-G-Pa, Manong Gene…he lead his family through many similar transitions. Often times, he would go first, find a good neighborhood, get an apartment or a house to live in, and then when things were ready he would send for the family to come join him. Sometimes they left other family and friends behind. And on occasion he would prepare a place for them too, and send for them when things were ready. Some of you have stayed under Gene’s roof, in one of HIS many dwelling places that he prepared for us. Perhaps you stayed in the current Ritua home, in the green room, orange room, the blue room, perhaps you stayed at the Harwood house for a time. Some of you even stayed in the driveway and slept outside in your RV, Gene always seemed willing to have us.

Today’s readings both speak of God preparing dwelling places for us. In the first reading we see the reference to our earthly body being a tent, a transitional dwelling place, while our heavenly home is our permanent home. We hold hope that while Gene has transitioned FROM his tent, that he has transitioned TO his permanent home in heaven, to one of the many dwelling places that God has prepared for us. We hold on to the hope that God is loving, kind and merciful, and wants nothing more than to spend eternity with us, so much so that he sent his son to conquer death by dying on the cross for us, so that we may spend our life not in a tent, where we are FROM, but in our permanent dwelling place in heaven where we are going TO.