The funeral Mass for Fr Aub Edwards CM who died at Bathurst on January 30 of this year,  was celebrated at St Stanislaus' College Bathurst on Tuesday February 5, 2008.   Below is the text of the  homily delivered by Fr Greg Cooney CM, Provincial of Vincentian Priests and Brothers (Australian Province) at the Funeral Mass.

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 "Today my heart is troubled. Many hearts are troubled.  

We have lost a beloved brother, uncle, grand uncle, friend and a dedicated priest.  

We feel the lost intensely, but none more so than his sisters Nell Dunn, and Dee English, his sister in law, Nola, his nieces and nephews: Bernadette, Helen, Maria, Elizabeth, Peter, Vincent, Anne, Patricia, Pauline, Denise; their spouses and their children. 

To these we add the Old Boys of St Stanislaus’ College, the Staff of the College, the students, and many, many friends from Bathurst and beyond. 

As his death approached, Aub prepared the liturgy that we celebrate this morning.  In the readings that he chose, he anticipated our sorrow, sought to alleviate it, and to share with us his own deep trust in God. 

These are the words on which his asks us to reflect – words that have the power to console and to dispel the trouble that besets us.  They are the words that Jesus addressed to his disciples as his own death approached. Do not let your hearts be troubled; trust in God still and trust in me. (Jn  14:1) Let us allow those words to sink deeply into our hearts. Let us allow our trust in God and in Jesus Christ to calm the grief we feel. 

Our faith bids us believe that Aub is now with God in one of the many rooms in our Father’s house.  A house in which there is also a room prepared for each of us.  It is there that we will once again be re-united with him. 

I think I can guess what God said to Aub last Wednesday night when he arrived to take up residence:  “Well, well, if it’s not the good man, Aub!” 

In the sixty years of his priestly ministry, his time was divided almost equally between two apostolates  -- the formation of young men and parish ministry.  He spent twenty-three years teaching and forming young men at St Stanislaus’ College, five years at St Charles’ Seminary in Perth, and three years at St Joseph’s Seminary, Eastwood.  His parish ministry was at St Vincent’s, Ashfield,  for six years, two years in Southport and Hughenden in the 1970s,  and for the last twenty years he worked for short periods each year in various parishes,  mostly in the Dioceses of Bathurst and Lismore. 

That ministry, whether it was teaching, or parish work, was guided by a simple, yet profound Christian truth.  It is this: Think of the love that the Father has lavished on us, by letting us be called God’s children; and that is what we truly are! (1Jn 3:1) 

This truth is so simple, yet so profound that we frequently find it hard to accept fully.  Accustomed, as many of us are, to look first at our weaknesses and our failures we find it hard to believe that each Christian is truly a child of God, sharing with Christ, our brother, his unique relationship to God. 

If there is any good news in the Christian message, it is surely this. What better news could there be that we, despite our failings, are genuine children of God, made so, not by our own merits, but simply because of the love that God has lavished on each of us. 

It is not always easy to be a bringer of this good news. The ever present urge to focus too much on the “musts” and the “shoulds” of living a Christian life, and on the failure that is part of each one’s life, can so mask this good news, that the Christian message starts to look and to feel more like bad news. 

Like all of us, Aub had to struggle at times to be a genuine bringer of good news. He constantly reminded himself of a saying of St Vincent: Charity is greater than any rule. (Coste, (Eng) VI, 52)

As he grew in age, in wisdom, and in his conviction of the simplicity of the good news, he grew in stature as its herald: you are God’s children, loved by God, despite everything.  His ministry became ever more marked with and moulded by this basic truth, and he proclaimed it with conviction, both in his words and in his deeds. 

He had a signature phrase: “the good man”, “the good woman”, “the good people”.  Even though he frequently said these words light-heartedly, he was deeply convinced of their truth. 

He regarded people’s goodness and an infallible sign of God’s presence in each person. He focussed on that goodness, he fostered it, he rejoiced in it, and in so doing, he encouraged people to really believe it themselves. To the young men of St Stanislaus’ College, I have this to say. Fr Aub enjoyed your singing; he found it uplifting.  As you sing today, sing not so much for him, but in thanksgiving to God for the gift that God has given you – the status of a son of God.  Cherish the good in yourself, honour it in others, and do so in gratitude to God. 

Fr Aub had many little sayings, one of which I remember in particular: “you cannot earn or buy kindness, but you can be grateful for it.” Such was the man we farewell today.  A man who strove to make kindness his watchword, and gratitude for what he had received, his abiding attitude. 

Today we give concrete expression of our own gratitude for what Aub was to us, for his kindness, his dedication, his labours, and his love. With those sentiments, we unite in giving thanks to God for the blessing that Fr Aub was to each of us."

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RIP
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For a brief outline of Fr Aub's life, see:   Vale Fr. Aub Edwards CM 1923 - 2008   (Stannies Website)