In Memory of Our Friend Angie

A small eulogy for our family’s friend, Angie:

Angie did not live a life of fame. She never starred in a movie or won an election or made a medical discovery. The world will not look back on this time and remember her. She did not walk among the Great Ones as the world conceives of greatness. And yet, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor 1:27-29).

Our faith absolutely insists that, as Jesus hung on the cross, as he died, and as he rose again and ascended to Heaven, Angelita was in the absolute centre of his thoughts—as though she were not merely the most famous person in the world, but the only one who ever existed. All the gigantic labours of God in the creation and redemption of the world were not, in the final event, about the Roman Empire or the Renaissance flowering of literature, or the winning of World War II or the exploration of the Moon, or the fame of Leonardo’s art, Beethoven’s music or Donald Trump’s hair. It was all for Angie. Everything in all of human history was leading up to the moment this little Filipino firecracker opened her eyes to the Beatific Vision and was welcomed into her Father’s presence and the embrace of her Mama Mary with the words, “Welcome Home. Well done, thou good and faithful!”