Dear Friends,
It was a privilege to gather yesterday and farewell our friend and brother Bernard Richards; to commend him to the God and Lord he served so faithfully; to offer our comfort and love to his family. Fr Bernard was part of the life of St Michael’s – parish and school – for some 17 years. His ministry and friendship will be missed by many. Requiescat in pace.
Such moments in our lives give us pause for thought. We are saddened, yet supremely thankful for the gift of another’s life and gifts and companionship on the Way. Caught, a little like S. Paul in our Epistle, in the agony and ecstasy of life and love. Paul writes of his ek stasis – his standing outside himself – in heavenly revelation, and his “thorn in the flesh”, his weakness and experience of insult and calamity.
Paul’s response is to own his answer to prayer. Not the miraculous fix-it he and we might so often desire, but something altogether more profound and provocative:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for power is made perfect in weakness.”
Paul meditated on this, so his writings suggest, for the rest of his life. As preacher. As apostle. As prisoner. As martyr.
The Church is a family of people who know their need. In that we discover God’s inconceivable grace, and mercy, and love. In our weakness, we know God’s power. In our grief, we find God’s consolation. In our dying, we are born to eternal life.
May God bless you all.
Fr Tim Hurd
