What Shall We Return to the Lord? – Br. Jamie Nelson
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Br. Jamie Nelson
Today is our monthly requiem mass, a time we dedicate to remembering the members of the Society of St. John the Evangelist who died during the month of September.
Later in the service, we will pray for them by name. But beyond their names, I want to offer now a small bouquet of the details of their lives plucked from their obituaries that we read at Compline: five were veterans of the great World Wars;1 four died during this century;2 three were known for their musical talents;3 two were sons of priests;4 and one was a talented tinkerer who could fix almost anything mechanical.5
These 11 men were much like every member of SSJE: distinct individuals in so many ways, yet similar in essentials. They served in almost every place SSJE has had a presence: in Canada, England, India, Scotland, South Africa, and the United States. Together, they tallied 380 years of professed life. I marvel at the vast expanse of that span of years saturated with prayer, worship, and service, and give thanks to God for their lives.
We give thanks to God today not just for those 11 lives, but for the lives of all the loved ones we carry in our hearts today. Death doesn’t erase relationships. Even in their absence, our loved ones are present in all the fibers of memories that have become woven into our very beings.
So how might we respond today in a way that proclaims gratitude for life’s gifts and acknowledges death’s sting? One way from our tradition is exactly what we’re doing right now – responding with the Eucharist, a word whose Greek root means “thanksgiving.” Responding with the Eucharist is a path to responding in thankfulness and praise, in trust and love, while also grieving the suffering of the cross.
A few moments ago, the Scola chanted the following lines from Psalm 116, verses 12-13:
“What shall I return to the Lord for all his bounty to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”
And in the epistle, we heard Paul’s words to the Corinthians, “The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The bread that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ?” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17).
When we lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord, we are not just recalling the past, but are trusting that through sacramental grace, our crucified and risen redeemer Jesus and our departed loved ones are present with us, gathered around the altar, sharing in the body and blood that unites us all.
1 Wigram, Hill, Frith, Dakers, Mathis ↩
2 Chiverton, Lennard, Mathis, Goldring ↩
3 Chiverton, Otis, Biscoe ↩
4 Hill, Biscoe ↩
5 Frith ↩