Sunday Homily, March 8, 2015, 3rd Lent, B
Readings:
Exodus 20, 1-17, God delivered all these commandments. Special reading for Rita's memorial, Song of Songs, 2, 8-14
Psalm 19, Lord, you have the words of everlasting life.
1 Corinthians 1, 22-25, The foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom.
John 2, 13-25, He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out.
Song of Songs, observation : Special reading in honor of Rita
What : A dialogue between a man and a woman who love and long for each other. No reference to God or the law.
When: probably after the Babylonian Captivity, 555 before Christ.
Our Subject: The girl is speaking to her lover.
Rita Dore
I would like to tell you a few stories about Rita, just to give you an idea of how neat and fun a person she was.
I don’t remember when or how I met Rita. Toward the end of Msgr. Claude Smyth’s life she was just there as the house keeper. More than anybody else, Rita took good care of Smyth, tending to him day and even night, helping him to move to the other side.
During this time, Matt Bagert was acting pastor and when Msgr. Smyth died Matt opened up the rectory a bit. He even threw a birthday party once, to which I was invited, along with another young Jesuit, Gene Sessa. Things went along smoothly this way for some months until…The Big Event happened. Fr. Duffy Gardner arrived.
Three little vignettes.
First, when Duffy settled into the rectory, the place went from being totally closed up to being wide open. He was platinum level hospitality. With Duffy welcoming everyone was the house keeper in the kitchen, Rita. They made a marvelous one-two team.
After doing the 9:00 Mass in the church and the 10:30 Mass in the cafetorium, I started going over to the rectory. I was usually worn out. I would go upstairs, take a 20 minute nap in an empty bedroom, then come down and join Duffy at the dining room table where he held forth.
Meanwhile, Rita had been cooking. In particular she made chocolate chip cookies the size of dinner plates and homemade vanilla ice cream. Guess what I ate for lunch. Wow, did I love Rita.
At the same time that she worked as housekeeper, Rita took on the training of the little kids for first communion. Two or three times a year I joined Duffy and a handful of other priests to do her kids' first confessions. My penance to each kid, 2 Hershey kisses. Think my line was long?
Two years in a row at this time Duffy hosted the whole gang of kids for first communion on a Saturday. Both years, Duffy at the homily would ask the kids questions and he would give out a dollar or two for correct answers. The big final question both years worth $5 was, ‘Who is the holiest priest in St. Marks?’ Hands would go up. Both years Duffy called on a timid little girl whom I happened to know. Both years the little girls said, “Fr. Stack.”
Well, as you can imagine, this brought down the house. Duffy would put on a display of incredulity. I don’t know if the first little girl got the $5 or not, but the second year I was there and I jumped up from the stage, ran down, and gave the girl $5 of my own.
Rita loved all this, the penances, which some parents did not think was so good, and the questions from Duffy.
At the same time, Rita volunteered one day to help me with all the weddings, acting as wedding coordinator. She had made wedding dresses in Birmingham or somewhere in her earlier, married life. Consequently, we had great fun meeting with the kids, usually over dinner at Jason’s or El Fenix, and celebrating the weddings.
One wedding among all of them really stands out. Two musicians, evening wedding, the big church, big crowd. After exchanging vows, we had the couple light the unity candle, standing behind the candle and facing the people.
Just before they lighted the candle, the mothers lit their candles, and then walked up the main aisle lighting a taper at each aisle before returning their candles to the unity candle. Meanwhile the tapers in the hands of all the people were getting lighted. Then we turned off the lights in the church. At the same time the couple had two singers, a guy and a girl, sing The Prayer that Bocelli and Celine Dion made famous. It was stupendous. Even remembering sends chills down my back.
An amusing footnote to the wedding took place. A woman, who wanted to hire out as a wedding coordinator, asked if she could sit in. “Sure, of course,” we said. After the wedding a staff member asked the lady what she thought of the wedding. “I just saw a wedding from hell,” she responded.
As a result of that, every time Rita and I would depart the rectory to perform a wedding in the church, Duffy would ask if we were doing another wedding from hell. It became our handle and provided lots of laughs.
Thanks, Rita, you have been a fun and tremendous friend. Rest well.