\”Ministry among the dead and those who mourn\”
Recently, I stayed overnight in the rectory of the parish of Saints John and Paul, Larchmont, New York, where I had served as pastor prior to my ordination as a Bishop. I was assigned a room in the rectory in which I had found one of the parish priests, a young man, dead on the floor, victim of massive heart failure. During that evening of my stay, I relived in my memory and in my heart the tragic events of that December morning 12 years ago when he did not show up for Mass and I opened the door of his room and found him fully clothed for priestly ministry but dead.
The recollection of that tragedy got me thinking about death. Of course, the deaths of my loved ones , family and friends, and the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of funerals and wakes that I have attended and prayed at these past 43 years of priesthood. I have never counted them but can testify that there have been many. A parish priest spends significant time ministering among the dead and those who mourn them.
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