Abbot Clement’s Homily at Bro. Alfred’s Funeral, Wednesday, September 4, 2002

        First of all I would like to thank Steve, Mary, Josephine, Dave and Mary for coming and celebrating with us the great gift of Brother Alfred in our midst and God’s work in his life. I’m sure you will have difficulty going home and I hope this Mass will also bless you and keep you safe on the trip back. I also like to thank the friends and relatives, well mostly friends, and friends of the abbey and friends of Brother Alfred who have also come to celebrate with us.

        Nice thing about being Abbot and to have funerals is you can select the text for the Mass. If we really want to understand the Abraham cycle, our St. Abraham, the father of faith, we have to remember that he was, the couple was, barren. And the first promise which is not read in today’s first reading was that God calls him out of his homeland of Ur. So the first time he discovers God he hears God voice in his life he follows, he obeys, he leaves everything familiar. His homeland, his friends, his relatives, he just takes his immediate family, which is rather large, of course, and goes. And in the response to that call and that word he begins to grow in faith. So that when he goes into Palestine he builds altars to Yahweh as the exterior sign that Yahweh is first in his life. And then he overcomes a bit of faith problem when it came to hunger, he kind used trickery in solving his own problems. But in this particular proclamation of the gospel it is clear that Abraham has deepened his faith. But the trouble is, he still barren.

        He has now reached a certain kind of level of achievement. He’s an independent sheik in Palestine. He is not dependent upon anyone. He is also in good relationship with God because he offered a prayer and thanksgiving through Mechizadech. So he has God’s blessing. And he is concerned about his future. Here I am, this is very important, you know he left Ur at 75, so cheer up everybody, and now it’s about 10 years later, he’s now 85 and there’s no heirs for all his wealth and his progeny. So he’s concerned. So the Lord reveals to him, first of all, that he is with him. Fear not and he is going to be his shield. And right away what surfaces to Abraham is well what good is your blessings? What good is it to have land, it’s not going to go to my children because I have no heir. And then God says to him straight up-front, the word of the Lord comes to him and it says, "no, a son of your own loins will be your heir." And then he takes him outside and lets him look at the stars. You have to remember that this is pre-indusry. No lights at night. And so the stars are just all over the place. And he’s a Jew, that is, he knows the power of the Word of God. When the Word of God speaks, it happens. And then in that revelation he believes. But he’s still barren. The couple is still barren. So in the midst of hopelessness he hopes, in the midst of barrenness, he’s believing in fruitfulness. And he’s convinced that the hope he has will happen.

        But when we go to the gospel it was harder to match the gospel, which one to pick because what I really look at Jesus in the boat, so it’s not barrenness, but it’s Jesus in the boat, the storm is there, and now we have chaos personified. And the apostle are absolutely fearful. And so they wake Jesus up and Jesus says, "Oh you of little faith!" And Jesus stands up and calms the storm. They lacked the ability to believe that Jesus has more power then the storm. But I picked that one because it is graphic and also because it is in the sequence. Before that, Jesus says the same thing, "Oh, you of little faith." When they’re worried about what to eat, what to drink, how to have clothes. He says,’Oh yea of little faith." Don’t you think the Father who clothes the fields with flowers and takes care of birds, etc., don’t you think he’ll take care of you? And then again, when Jesus multiplies the bread and they hop in the boat and they have little bread and again Jesus says, "Oh yea of little faith." They miss the message of His power to multiply bread. And then again when it comes to kicking out evil spirits, Jesus says, "Oh yea of little faith." Even after the resurrection the text really says, if you look at the original, "some had little faith."

        The journey of life begins when we believe. If you don’t believe you haven’t even started the journey. And so it’s the believer that has to struggle with the question, Do I really believe God is with me? Do I really believe in barrenness, there’s fruitfulness? Do I really, in overwhelming situations, that God is there to pull me out? Do I really believe? That’s the question. And that’s what we’re celebrating here because we’ve seen someone who believed. Brother Alfred was about 31 years old when he came to the monastery. But before that, just before that in ‘46, little after he got out of the Coast Guard, he decided to go to the seminary. And when he got to the seminary he was doing fine but he began to have epilepsy. And that was the cause for him to be dismissed. It’s honorable of course and etc. But he still believed that God was calling him to religious life of some kind. And so out of that chaos for him at that time, he came to Cleveland. He left everything and came. And he gave himself totally to his work. I was reading the reports on Alfred when he was a Postulant, Novice and Junior Monk, etc. and they’re all rather powerful. They’re all saying, " he’s amazingly, 100% present at all the Office, and praying, etc., doing good work, and using his talents for the good of the community, etc.

        Then, of course, later on the job at the school, he was teaching typing, and doing all kind of clerical work, sometimes for the principal, sometimes for the Abbot, sometimes doing clerical work just managing the magazine, etc. And he threw himself into it. Now Jesus said, "that anyone who gives up family, house, brothers and sisters, parents, for My sake and the sake of the Kingdom, I will give them brothers and sisters, etc. persecution, and in the end, eternal life." And we as monks, when we profess ourselves, we stand before the altar and community and say, "Sustain me, O Lord, that I may live. Disappoint me not in my expectation, my hope." And so Brother Alfred threw himself into this. Did he really get to this point of believing that God is God in his life? And I think that there are two things that show that the answer is yes. Besides the one of already having epilepsy and trusting the doctors, etc. that took care of that. When he began to loose his eyesight and he discovered he had cancer he didn’t stop praying. He prayed even more. And as things got worse he prayed even more, because he would wake up at night instead of getting mad or getting up and watching TV, he prayed. He told me sometimes by the time we have Lauds, he already had three rosaries done. And he’s praying for all kinds of intentions: salvation of the world, people he knew etc. And certainly God has given him brothers and sisters and family because even in his walks up the street he would meet people and get acquainted with them and they remember him. And the same thing in the hospital the doctors, etc. he made friends with everyone.