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<\/a><\/p>\nLast Saturday morning, my brother-in-law, Gary Wenzel, died suddenly after suffering a heart attack. He was 67. Gary was not Catholic, but he and my sister were married in a small country Catholic church\u2014St. Michael\u2019s<\/a><\/strong>, in Poplar Springs, Maryland \u2014 29 years ago. My sister has been a parishioner there for many years, and so she asked the pastor, Father Mike Ruane\u2014the same priest who had married them\u2014to offer the funeral, a simple Catholic prayer service outside of a Mass. I had the privilege of preaching the homily, below.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n +<\/p>\n \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n I know there are many troubled hearts here this morning.<\/p>\n I want to begin by expressing my condolences, my prayers and my love to my sister, Karen, and to Judy, Bruce, John and all of Gary\u2019s family. I know many of you have come far to be here. It\u2019s a great comfort to be surrounded by so many friends.<\/p>\n And it\u2019s a comfort too, I think, to hear again these words of Jesus:<\/p>\n \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled.\u201d<\/p>\n I know: On a morning like this, that\u2019s easier said than done.<\/p>\n But I can\u2019t think of anyone who followed that advice better than Gary.<\/p>\n I knew him for over 40 years\u2014going back to horse shows, the Pony Club and Iron Bridge Hunt. I can\u2019t remember a time when he was not a part of my life. I remember him when he had a full head of hair! I remember how he used to wear that beautiful green hunting jacket.<\/p>\n And I remember what a great storyteller he was, spending long nights into the wee hours of the morning regaling us with stories about the foibles of human nature. No one could make my sister laugh like he did. And what a blessing that was.<\/p>\n The thing is, I don\u2019t remember a time when he was anxious or worried about anything. He would not let his heart be troubled.<\/p>\n Years ago, I heard that Garrison Keillor was going to be in New York for a reading and a book signing. Knowing how much Gary loved \u201cPrairie Home Companion,\u201d I went down to Barnes and Noble near Union Square to have Keillor sign one of his books. Hundreds of people had turned out, and we had to get in line to get his autograph. And when it got to be my turn, Garrison Keillor looked up at me and asked who the book was for. And I said: \u201cIt\u2019s for Gary.\u201d<\/p>\n And he looked at me over his eyeglasses and said, \u201cNot Garrison?\u201d<\/p>\n And I said no, just Gary.<\/p>\n He was always \u201cjust Gary.\u201d No muss. No fuss. No frills.<\/p>\n In his heart, he was a country boy in jeans and boots and a polo shirt.<\/p>\n He hated attention and did everything he could to avoid it. He never wanted anyone to make a big deal over his birthday or any special occasion. He didn\u2019t think he was all that special.<\/p>\n But every one of us here this morning knows differently.<\/p>\n He was.<\/p>\n Actually, Gary would probably be amazed at all the people here this morning.<\/p>\n He would certainly be surprised at the tremendous outpouring of love and prayer. Gary was not a man who liked to express his thoughts about either of those things, love or prayer.<\/p>\n But whether he realized it or not, he was loved.<\/strong><\/p>\n He is <\/em>loved.<\/p>\n And he is being prayed for.<\/p>\n Saturday, after I posted the news about Gary on Facebook, I heard from people all around the world, hundreds and hundreds of them\u2014everyone from bartenders to bishops, priests and deacons, housewives and students\u2026all offering their prayers for Gary, storming heaven with intercessions, remembering him at Masses, lighting candles for him. I know Karen experienced the same thing when she posted the news on her Facebook page.<\/p>\n He\u2019s being well-prayed-for this week!<\/p>\n And that may be what would surprise him most of all.<\/p>\n After all, Gary was not anyone\u2019s idea of a religious man. He grew up a quiet Methodist, like our mother. He was an usher at the Methodist church in Laurel where his aunt played the organ. But at some point, he just decided he didn\u2019t need to go to church and didn\u2019t want to.<\/p>\n We Catholics, of course, tend to be big church-goers.<\/p>\n But Gary wasn\u2019t like that. Karen told me the other day: \u201cI\u2019d tell him I was going to church and he\u2019d say \u2018Why?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Gary just didn\u2019t see the need for it.<\/p>\n But I believe he understood something a lot of us miss. He saw God in places most people don\u2019t. Gary practiced his faith in another way, in another kind of church.<\/p>\n His was a church with a wide valley and rolling hills<\/p>\n Gary\u2019s pew, his seat, was the saddle on the back of a horse.<\/p>\n The choir was a pack of hounds, raising their voices.<\/p>\n The incense was the mingled smell of autumn leaves and fresh-cut hay and saddle soap and manure and sweat.<\/p>\n And the sound that called him to worship wasn\u2019t the bell in the steeple, but the clear cry of the huntsman\u2019s horn.<\/p>\n This was Gary\u2019s faith<\/strong>. His creed. His psalm. His canticle. He loved it, all of it, and he lived it.<\/p>\n A man who marvels at creation and loves God\u2019s creatures cannot help but love the Creator.<\/p>\n I believe Gary saw God\u2019s hand in all of it\u2014something wondrous and sacred.<\/p>\n A huntsman named Stan Copeland from Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, once wrote about foxhunting and faith. He made this beautiful connection to Christ, whom he called \u201cThe Divine Huntsman\u201d:<\/p>\n \u201cOur Divine Huntsman,\u201d he wrote, \u201cdoes for us what a true Sportsman-Hunter does for his special pack: He never leaves us nor forsakes us. The man would be no \u2018Master of Hounds\u2019 if he carelessly let a pup stray away from him, or simply rode away from the Pack and the Field, \u2018leaving them to their own devices.\u2019 Our Lord Jesus assured us, too: \u2018I will never leave you nor forsake you\u2026Behold, I am with you always.\u2019 An earthly huntsman knows his animals by sight and by sound, whether near or far, and he always has their best interests at heart. Likewise, Jesus knows all those who are His. He knows our needs and our sorrows. He constantly cares for us. He carries us in His bosom when we are weak, weary, and wounded.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Jesus did that for Gary. And he does it this morning for us.<\/strong><\/p>\n He reassures us: do not let your hearts be troubled.<\/p>\n As much as we grieve today, our Christian faith tells us that this isn\u2019t the end of the story. Death doesn\u2019t have the last word. There is more.<\/p>\n And so my prayer this morning is that The Divine Huntsman is welcoming Gary back from his journey\u2014back from the long ride across rolling hills, back from wading through creeks and jumping fences and clearing the obstacles of the fields \u2014 and the obstacles of life.<\/p>\n My prayer is that Gary has been welcomed back to a place of clear skies and still water, a place of peace and rest, where another hunt is planned for the next day \u2014 and the day after that, and the day after that.<\/p>\n That would be Gary\u2019s heaven, his own \u201cfield of dreams.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s a tradition at the start of the hunting season to have a Blessing of the Hounds. We\u2019re a long way from hunting season, but this morning, I\u2019d like to share the closing words of that blessing\u2014words that offer us comfort and hope and words, I think, Gary held in his heart:<\/p>\n \u201cHeavenly Father, in your love you sanctified all things by your word.<\/p>\n Grant mercy to us your servants and offer to us, our horses and our hounds, to all who share in this sport, your mercy.<\/p>\n In your love let us share in the spirit of love for each other so that the spirit of true sportsmanship may prevail among us.<\/p>\n And as we go, may the Lord bless us and keep us. May the Lord make His face to shine upon us. May the Lord lift up His countenance upon us and give us His peace.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled,\u201d Jesus said. \u201cYou know the way.\u201d<\/p>\n I think Gary knew the way. He walked the way.<\/p>\n He lived the way. With gentleness and integrity, with generosity and joy.<\/p>\n And by God\u2019s grace, he has found the way home.<\/p>\n +<\/strong><\/p>\n After the funeral, the mourners walked across the road to the graveyard of the original church, where we then had the committal and final blessing. <\/em><\/p>\n In an age-old tradition, two huntsmen sounded their horns\u2014the familiar call for the hounds to return home.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMerciful Lord, you know the anguish of the sorrowful, you are attentive to the prayers of the humble. Hear your people who cry out to you in their need, and strengthen their hope in your lasting goodness. We ask this through Christ our Lord.\u201d \u2014 Prayer Over the People, Rite of Committal<\/p>\n Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.<\/p>\n Rest in peace, brother. Rest in peace.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>