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TEXT OF HOMILY AT FUNERAL MASS
OF
FR JOHN WILKINSON CM
Fr John Wilkinson CM
Fr John Wilkinson CM died on February 18, 2008 and his Funeral
Mass was celebrated on Monday February 25, in St Joseph's Church,
Malvern (Melbourne) The text of the Homily given at the Mass
by Fr Greg Cooney CM (Provincial of Australian CM Province) is
below:
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We gather this
morning to farewell Fr John Patrick Wilkinson, who after 93
years, has been called home to be with the God whom he served
so faithfully throughout his life.
We have lost a
dedicated priest, a dear relative and friend, and a faithful
follower of Christ in the footsteps of St Vincent de Paul.
His journey now
over, he is with God, and with the Prophet Isaiah can
proclaim:
"See this is our
God, in whom we hoped for salvation;
The Lord is the one in whom we hoped.
We exult and rejoice that God has saved us." (Is 25:9) |
It is odd that God
choose us, and offered us salvation. We human beings are
indeed a foolish, faithless, heartless and fickle mob. It
beggars belief that an all-wise, all-knowing God would be
bothered with us, let alone pledging us faithfulness, even to
the point of becoming one of us in Christ Jesus.
Yet this is
precisely what constitutes the glory of God – God present in
our midst in human form because of the promise made to us.
It was this glory
of God – this presence of God among us – that captured John’s
heart and drew him on. Inspired by it, he sought, in his life,
to be faithful to his own promises. Faithfulness was his
watchword, and the yardstick by which he measured himself.
His dedication to
daily prayer, to his spiritual exercises, to his devotional
practices, and to his work all bespoke a dedicated, even
dogged determination to be faithful to his commitments and to
the task given him by God.
Much of John’s
priestly life was spent in the sphere of education: in
secondary schools in Ireland and Australia; in seminaries in
Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and Lebanon; and in the many
years of his labours as University chaplain.
The conviction
that moulded his apostolate and guided his work was drawn from
the farewell discourse of Jesus to his disciples, in which, in
the form of a prayer to the Father, Jesus handed to his
disciples the continuation of his own mission:
"I have made known
your name to them,
and will continue to make it known,
so that the love with which you loved me may be in them,
and so that I may be in them." (Jn 17: 26). |
John took this
commission to heart: "Make God’s love known."
In some religious
communities, although not in the Vincentians, it is a custom
to take, at profession, a motto – a pithy saying to express
that for which one stands and strives. If John had taken one,
it could well have been the words of St Paul: "They cannot
chain up God’s news."
He was unremitting
in the task of making known God’s news, and for the same
reason that St Paul gave:
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"so that in the end,
they may have the salvation that is in
Christ Jesus,
and the eternal glory that comes with it." (2 Tim 2: 9-10)
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People who worked
with John noticed this, and were impressed by his relentless
determination that God’s news would not be chained. A fellow
University chaplain, on hearing of John’s death, wrote to me:
"Fr John was a
remarkable man. I remember once in Brisbane in January at a
Catholic University Students’ gathering, it was so hot and the
sandflies were so bad, it was very difficult to cope. It was
one of the worst weeks of my life. Fr John sailed through it.
I was amazed at his stamina."
In similar vein,
one of his Vincentian confreres remarked: "He was a steadfast
pilgrim who forged ahead, whatever the terrain, the climate,
the weather!"
God’s news was not
to be chained if John Wilkinson could do something about it.
John, we bid you
farewell today. We thank you for your life, your love, your
service and your faithfulness. In so doing, we give thanks to
God for the promise fulfilled in you, and we do so in the firm
hope that we shall be re-united with you, face to face with
God, in whom we too trust and hope.
Fr Greg Cooney CM
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Note that
more details of Fr John Wilkinson life can be found on
the this site through the link:
Outline of Life of Fr John Wilkinson CM
RIP
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