by CCW | 20 April 2015 05:39
“I am the bread of life,” Jesus says, who also says “I am the Good Shepherd.” The two phrases go together and inform our understanding of what we do here today, an understanding of things spiritual and intellectual that were well known and understood by the very person who gathers us into that understanding.
We meet here at Christ Church for the Christian funeral of Helen Katharine Gibson. We meet in accord not simply with her wishes per se but her wishes in accord with the pattern and understanding of the Christian faith which she believed and to which she gave such eloquent testimony by her example and service, her commitment and generosity.
“O Jesus, I have promised.” They are the first words of one of the hymns which she wanted sung at her Requiem. Nothing captures more profoundly the character of Helen. Her whole life was about a promise to the Christ who promises salvation to all that seek his will. Helen knew this and knew something else. It is not a one-off moment of assertion but a life-long process of learning about “put[ting] on the Lord Jesus Christ,” about living with Christ in his body, the Church. For Helen it was essential, “the one thing necessary.” She combined in her approach to Parish and community life both the service qualities of a Martha, “busy with many things,” and the contemplative qualities of a Mary, “sitting at the feet of Jesus.” She knew that service and worship go together and belong to the nature of our life in Christ. It was not simply what she wanted; it was also what she thought was right and proper.
Though diminutive in stature, she was great-souled in character. There was a remarkable toughness to Helen. She was not one to give up and remained courteous and lively in heart and mind right to the end, undeterred by such minor things as broken bones! Those were only inconveniences. She was not one to complain. The major frustration for her was not being able to do all the things that she wanted to do. I am talking about her when she was in her nineties! For years upon years, she attended the 8:00am service here at Christ Church, nestled in the back Choir pew, often with Cecilia and Lynn Pascoe and rarely, if ever, did she miss a mid-week service at least until these last few years. Even then, she was always present either in her room or Aggie’s room at Kingsway Gardens, now Macleod House, with Bill and Wilfred and one of her Newfoundland Angels/caregivers for Holy Communion. She delighted in the worship of the Church. She had a strong sense of duty, duty towards God and duty towards neighbour. In both she was, I think, an inspiration to us all.
Helen had a strong sense of what was proper and right, not in a narrow and pedantic way but as alive to the things that matter. Shortly after coming to Christ Church some seventeen or eighteen years ago, I remember her speaking to me about two things. First, why had I omitted at the 8:00am Communion Service a part of the service commonly called The Comfortable Words? I assured her that I had no objection to The Comfortable Words but was only trying to keep the service reasonably short. Her reply was, “well, they surely don’t take that much time, do they?” She was right and needless to say I have never omitted them at the 8:00 Sunday service ever since and certainly not today!
Secondly, Helen clearly loved this church building, ultimately because of what it represents and stands for. She was alert to the symbolical significance of its structure and was concerned about any changes to its fabric that might undermine its spiritual integrity. I learned this because of something which she said to me in the early months of my being here. She said, “well, of course, we won’t be getting rid of the Rood Screen, will we? Not that I had any such intention but it struck me as a curious statement and yet one which revealed a certain sense of principle.
She was aware, I think, of the forms of liturgical chaos which unsettled so much of the Anglican Church. It taught me that while some flexibility in the liturgy may be allowed, one should never underestimate the resonance of the words and the order of the liturgy in people’s souls as well as their affection for places of worship and the ordering of sacred space. She knew about the spiritual significance of the Rood Screen and she helped me to appreciate it even more, especially in the face of the iconoclastic tendencies which belong to a forgetting or a denial of the spiritual logic of a Church like this.
The Rood screen is about the cross of Christ; the very word ‘rood’ is an old English word for the cross. The Comfortable Words which follow absolution are about the meaning of Christ’s forgiveness in us that prepare us for our communion with Christ in the sacrament of the altar. Helen wanted a Requiem and she wanted it here. In way, it is about Jesus as “the bread of life” and Jesus as “the Good Shepherd.” Both are familiar images, especially the image of Christ the Good Shepherd. Both speak to the forms of our incorporation into Christ, to the forms of our spiritual life that shape our witness and lives of service.
The image of Christ the Good Shepherd is often used at funerals, to be sure, but it is read in the liturgy of the Church at this time of year, in the season of Easter, on The Second Sunday after Easter to be precise; in other words, tomorrow. Why? Because it is understood through the lenses of the Resurrection. An image of care, to be sure, it is also an image of cure. The Good Shepherd gives his life for the sheep. Christian service is rooted in sacrifice, the sacrifice of Christ by which his life is given for us so that it may be lived in us. How? By our service and sacrifice in Church and community.
For many years, Helen worked in the pharmacy at Payzant Memorial Hospital. It is a form of service towards the sick and the dying, one of the seven works of corporal mercy in the Christian understanding of things. She loved her work and the people she worked with and worshipped with here at Christ Church. Shortly after her death, we received a letter from the Isle of Man in England. It was from Tricia Craig who worked with Helen at the old Hospital and who worshipped at Christ Church with her as well. She clearly had many fond memories of Helen across the seas of many years. And for Carol Peterson, another close friend of Helen, there are the fond memories of what Helen showed and taught her.
Helen loved flowers and for years tended with great care her own little English garden. I am sure there are still plants growing there which she planted, the snows of this long and white winter notwithstanding. Gardens are often, it seems to me, about the visible hope of the Resurrection and about the cosmic meaning of the Resurrection.
In the care of the Good Shepherd, we met in Holy Week at the tomb of Christ on Holy Saturday only to discover something more that belongs to the radical meaning of the image of the Good Shepherd, namely, the gathering to himself in redemption of the whole of our sinful humanity. The Descent into Hell is followed scripturally and creedally by the Resurrection; the tomb becomes the garden of new life.
Such things are all part of the promise of Christ and they live in us if we, too, promise ourselves to Christ. He is “the bread of life” who gives himself to us ‘body broken and blood outpoured’ in the sacrament of the altar so that the love and care of the Good Shepherd can live and move in us. Helen not only wanted this Requiem; she also wanted the liturgical colour to be white rather than the more traditional purple. Why? Because of the hope and promise of the Resurrection. It was what she knew and what she lived for here in this place and this community.
We give thanks to God for her generosity and commitment to Christ and his Church and for her service and sacrifice. It is our privilege and pleasure to place her in the mercies of the Risen Christ praying for the forgiveness of her sins and ours and seeking the comfort of Christ in his word and sacrament. Such is the love and care of the one who is “the bread of life” and “the good shepherd” of our souls and bodies, the one who says,
Fr. David Curry
Requiem Eucharist for Helen Katharine Gibson
Christ Church, Windsor, NS
April 18th, 2015
Source URL: https://christchurchwindsor.ca/2015/04/20/sermon-for-requiem-eucharist-for-helen-katherine-gibson/
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