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Fr Eltin Patrick Griffin, O.Carm.
Homily given at Evening Prayer in memory of Eltin Patrick
Griffin, O.Carm. by Martin Baxter, O.Carm., at Terenure College Chapel on 3
January 2007.
This
evening we gather to begin our formal farewell to Eltin Patrick Griffin:
Carmelite, our brother, a priest and a friend to so many.
In
these funeral days we experience a mixture of emotions on many different
levels. We, his family, both religious and natural, and his many friends,
feel a sense of loss for one so dear. We feel sadness at his going. We
miss already his sense of joy and interest in so many things. He always had
an opinion and was never stuck for words. He loved life and life returned
the compliment. He lived life to the full, always conscious that it was a
gift from God and, as such, it should be savoured.
The
reading chosen for this Evening Prayer is from the Office of Readings for
the 31st of December, the day Eltin died. It comes to us from St
Paul’s Letter to the Colossians. Paul’s words are those you might
imagine Eltin repeating;
‘Since you have accepted Christ – Keep your roots deep in him, build your
lives on him, and become ever stronger in your faith’.
Eltin’s roots were deep, deep as a Christian, deep as a Carmelite and deep
too as a son of his native place, Cork. Despite his many years away from
Cork he could still do the accent and tell a story with an easy wit and a
charm that brought a smile and a hearty laugh to those who kept his company.
He
built his life on the things of God: The Word of God, the Liturgy,
Fraternity, Friendship, Learning – and many more good things too numerous to
mention here.
Over
the course of the years, in the ups and downs of life, which we all face now
and then, he carried on and always looked forward to the future with hope
and expectation. Even recently he was making arrangements for well into
2007, a year which he would not enter.
The
last scene in this life has been played, the curtain has fallen on a great
life. The lights have dimmed, but for the Christian the light of Christ
does not go out.
In
the last few days we spoke of Eltin. We recalled some stories. We
remembered some of the things that he did or said. We brought to mind what
made him who he was.
Indeed, each one of us has a story, a memory. They are special. They will
stay with us to comfort us and no doubt make us smile in the times to come.
One
of his greatest points of contact with us was in his preaching.
I
remember as a student complementing him on a particular homily he preached
at Gort Muire on the Feast of All Saints. To my surprise he gave it to me.
I kept it in the hope that I might use it in the future. Or, at least, I
might learn how a homily might be put together. This evening is the time to
use it, in a sense to let him speak to us.
Imagine his voice:
‘The
road to holiness is indeed difficult. It was no easier for those men and
women of the past than it is for us today. Holiness if it is real is always
new.’
There
is a new holiness for our time because there are new situations, new
realities, new relationships. Holiness is always new just as it is always
ancient.
Like
the saints of old we are adding our own little building blocks to the New
Jerusalem, but we have not seen the Architect’s plan.
We
work in mystery. Perhaps the most important work God has planned for us
from all eternity is already behind us and we never knew it. It could have
been a conversation on a train. A simple act of consolation. A sentence
spoken in the quiet of a confessional. God knows. We work in faith in the
dark, but God is putting it all together’.
Finally, the last word to St John of the Cross, a particular favourite of
Eltin’s. John made his return to God on 12th December 1591.
After midnight the bell rang for Matins. Fray Juan asked, ‘What was that?’
‘The bell calling the brothers to Matins,’ came the reply. ‘Glory to God! I
shall say them in Heaven!’ he replied.
We
pray that you, Eltin, may see God face to face.
We
commend your spirit into the hands of the Lord.
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