August 2, 2002: Funeral of Emma Olberding

Father Owen's Homilies

Homily for the Funeral of Emma Olberding at St. Mary’s Church, St. Benedict, August 2, 2002

Albert, Betty, your children and grand children, your many friends: We must take the words of the Gospel passage very seriously! Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Have faith in God; have faith in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places.” Let us do take the words of this Gospel seriously and paint a picture in our minds of Emma looking out of her room with a view in heaven to check whether or not Ida Hulsing has her laundry hung out yet!

Or we could consider a 94-year-old person waking up on this last Easter Sunday morning with the announcement that she was going to church. Emma had not been to church for a while! She said, “I am going to church and nobody’s stopping me.” I wonder if she said the same thing last Wednesday at 1:00 AM? “ I am on my way to heaven and nobody’s stopping me. I want to see Bert and my other children.” On the way home she stopped to say “Goodbye.”

We are speaking of a good, strong, and generous, woman who knew her own mind very well. She lived the way of Jesus because she had been baptized into the death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Paul says, “ We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead … we might live in newness of life. If we have died with Christ we shall; also live with him.”

Emma, like many of us, tried to live the Christ life, given her in baptism, all the days of her life. And like so many of us she kept in touch with her country neighborhood, swept the milk barn, played cards, laughed, was wife and mother. She enjoyed her friends and kept in close touch with them. She was alert almost to the end, always ready for a bit of news, ready for a laugh, ready to offer an opinion, ready to be surprised. Imagine her great surprise and wonderment. No need for the words she was unable to speak. No need to get on the phone. All she has to do now is “enjoy.”