Sunday Homily 10-31-10, 31st Ordinary Time & All Saints
Readings: We are celebrating All Saints, but using the readings for Sunday, Sirach 35, 12-18; Psalm 145, I will praise Your Name forever, My King and My God (my favorite line in the psalm; can you spot it?); 2 Thessalonians 1, 11-2, 2; Luke 10, 9-14 (Good Ole Zacheus ).
We actually had two poems read this morning for All Saints. Watch for them in the Friday blog.
Psalm 145:
See if you can pick it out. My favorite line in perhaps all of scripture.
Fr. Jack Deeves, S.J. at 82
A week ago Thursday I attended a celebration of the life of Fr. Jack Deeves at St. Rita’s. Jack was a Jesuit companion all my 50 plus years as a Jesuit. He was 82. He had received a heart transplant in ‘89, and lived with it for 21 years, close to if not a record. He was one of the good old Jesuits.
I want to tell you about him this morning and use as a template the story of Zacheus and my favorite line from scripture. Could you spot it? My version: “The Lord is gracious and merciful, never gets angry and is abounding in love.” Psalm 145, verse 8. Could this not be the answer to our big question?
Unlike our friend Zacheus, Jack was not short in stature. Probably 6’2” or more, you could see him above the crowd smiling and greeting all the people gathering around him.
Like Zacheus, who was agile enough to climb trees, Jack was a good athlete. In my early Jesuit days I did not like to face him when he was pitching for the other side.
Like Zacheus he was what the psalm calls ‘gracious.’ I would say he was a gracious hospitable extrovert. For many of the years I spent at Jesuit with him he was the father minister, the priest in charge of the kitchen, supplies, and the well being of the men in the house. I cannot count the number of years he played the role of Santa Clause at our annual Christmas party.
I took Jack out to lunch about a year ago at Kel’s Kitchen down at Forest & the Tollway, a Jesuit staff hangout. As we go in, half a dozen or ten people all know Jack and stop him to chat. Jack graciously spent time with all of them, smiling and asking them about their families & lives. I thought he was never going to make it to our table.
Like Zacheus and certainly like God who the psalm writer says never gets angry, Jack never lost his amiable disposition and enthusiasm for people and life. Only if one of us Jesuits to be buggers would slightly intimate that Ursuline, the institution he loved last & most, we would intimate that Ursuline was slightly less than Jesuit. To the rescue Jack would come.
I can remember when I was in my 5th, 6th and 7th years of study in Mobile we used to go to a 2 week summer camp on the eastern shore of Mobile Bay, a place I loved, because I loved the outdoors, the water, the sun, water skiing, and outdoor sports like 2 person volley ball. Jack was the father superior for us maybe 50 guys living in a two storey, screened in pavilion. Big open dormitory on the second floor. Jack made life heavenly for us, even though some guys were not into the outdoor life. We had no a/c. He even had time to play with the neighbor kids from houses along the shore. I developed some close friends among those neighbors.
Finally, as the psalm writer says about God, Jack was dear. He was loving. He loved people and he poured out his spirit loving them, at Kel’s Kitchen, at Jesuit, at Ursuline, as cheer leader moderator for years, and at so many football games and school events.
I know Jack was hurting because of my departure, but he was one of the guys I could always call up or go by Ursuline to find him. I would ask how he was and how the other guys were. He would even go out to eat with me.
Jack was not short of stature physically or spirit-wise. He was, moreover,gracious and merciful, never got angry and was dear, abounding in love.
Who is the Jack Deeves in your life?
Picture 1: Beginning of Mass for All Saints
Picture 2: Memorial for Our Beloved
Picture 3: More of the Memorial
Picture 4: Our Father
Picture & Obituary from the Dallas Morning News, October 17: