Heart, I’d recommend going out of your way to witness something very moving.
Today I went to my friend, Fr. Michael Heppen’s funeral. His brother C.S.C.s showed up en masse. The service and homily were very spiritual.
The priest who delivered the homily did a great job of memorializing my friend and in a spiritual way that those of us who knew him completely understood. It wasn’t something he threw together at the last minute. I fact, I swear there were two occasions where he struggled to say the words he’d written.
Toward the end, the organist plays the alma mater, which I thought was going to be all there was.......and then, son of a gun, all those 45-50 guys up there on the altar, with strong voices sing Notre Dame Our Mother, while mere mortals like me and others were so choked up we couldn’t sing a note.
If that isn’t enough..after Mass.....as the casket is taken out to the front of Sacred Heart and despite the shitty weather, those men, those brothers who might have had differences of opinion during the deceased’s life, those priests young and old, walk to the cemetery where their brother is laid to rest. Only the frailest of the C.S.C.s didn’t make the trek. The rest made the walk to honor their fellow priest.
And then, with one last show of appreciation even after death, Fr. Heppen, through Brother Dennis, provided his friends with cigars to celebrate and honor his life.
For all the times I’ve expressed frustration or disappointment with the Holy Cross fathers, when one of their own dies, they honor him as each of us would wish and hope out family would. So if you’re ever on campus for a funeral of a Holy Cross priest, I’d highly recommend you spend an hour and a half to witness how we would all like to be remembered and celebrated when we die