Mass of Christian Burial for
Father Raymond Geyer, O.S.B.
July 29, 2009
We have come together today to give praise and thanks to God for our dear brother, Father Raymond, who served God faithfully as a professed monk of this abbey for sixty-six years, and served the church tirelessly in his priestly ministry for over sixty years. We have come together today to support one another, and especially to be with Father Kenneth, in our loss. Our sadness is not for Father Raymond. Our sadness is for ourselves, that we must continue without his encouragement and energy. None of us remember a Belmont Abbey without Father Raymond, who was the senior professed monk of our community. The monastery is going to be a somewhat quieter and certainly less colorful place. We are here as the disciples of Jesus to build one another up in our faith, which can be shaken in times of loss, and to proclaim boldly and with joy once again the good news that Jesus lives and death is vanquished. We come in obedience to the Lord’s command to do this in his memory, to receive his true body and blood, our pledge, the down payment given us by Jesus, of our resurrection and everlasting life.
In an endlessly marvelous way, the inspired word of God in the Scriptures speaks as directly to us today as it spoke to those to whom it was first addressed. It speaks directly to us who, in consternation, helplessness and sorrow accompanied Father Raymond through these final stages of his monastic journey, as we saw him almost daily diminish, and watched helplessly and with sadness as his legendary energy vanished seemingly overnight.
Father Raymond, as we all know quite well, was always in charge, always in control. He had a seemingly inexhaustible store of energy and was constantly on the go. All that changed suddenly, seemingly overnight, when his heart attack last fall suddenly exposed the disease which had silently and insidiously been constricting that big heart of his. Seemingly without warning, his energy and strength vanished and – the bitterest of all – in one fell stroke he had to give up driving.
This was all very difficult, and for perhaps the first time, Father Raymond seemed overwhelmed. As the signs of approaching death grew daily more insistent, Father Raymond was uneasy. I suspect that, in his prayer, in those times when you would catch him looking out into the distance, the words of Lamentations may well have been in his heart: I have forgotten what happiness is; I tell myself my future is lost, all that I hoped for from the Lord…Remembering it over and over leaves my soul downcast within me. And yet Father Raymond was not one to remain downcast for long. I suspect that those following words fairly quickly came to console him, as they must console us: The favors of the Lord are not exhausted, his mercies are not spent; they are renewed each morning, so great is his faithfulness…Good is the Lord to one who waits for him, to the soul that seeks him. And indeed, the Lord was good to Father Raymond and renewed once again His mercies towards him. Little did either of us suspect that Communion on Sunday afternoon was truly viaticum, food for the journey – a journey that was imminent not in terms of days or weeks, but in minutes. And we trust that the Lord, in his fidelity to Father Raymond, disposed things in such a manner that his own words could be fulfilled in a marvelous way: This is the bread that came down from heaven…whoever eats this bread will live forever. I hope, too, that for Father Raymond as a monk, it was also a grace of Providence that he could hear from his abbot literally minutes before his death that he need not be afraid, that he was going to see Jesus, and that he had done much good work in Belmont, Savannah, Richmond and at Saint Michael’s. He knew he was loved and appreciated, and this, too, is a gift from the Lord that we are to give to one another.
We are taught, likewise, by the Apostle today. For we watched as Father Raymond seemed almost to shrink before our eyes, as his body gradually failed. So it is well that we today can be reminded by Saint Paul: We know that if our earthly dwelling, a tent, should be destroyed, we have a building from God, a dwelling not made with hands, eternal in heaven. The great temptation is always to be pulled to conform ourselves to the values and views of the world – to lose trust in the good news of the gospel, and to view death as the ultimate disaster. What a treasure we have in faith to take comfort in the sure and certain hope that Father Raymond does indeed have a dwelling now eternal in heaven. Yes, we, too, as he, must be always courageous, we must walk by faith. We believe in this faith that Father Raymond, like all of us, must appear before the judgment seat of Christ. Yet precisely here is the consolation of our faith, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has similarly been tested in every way, yet without sin. So let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and to find grace for timely help. Father Raymond, a faithful monk and priest will appear before this merciful high priest, painfully aware, as we all will be, of his sins. Yet he also arrives with innumerable exhibits of that good which the grace of that very same high priest Jesus Christ has accomplished through him, and therein will he find his forgiveness and his life. For the one who, as we have heard in today’s gospel, did not hesitate to stretch out his hands and endure the agony of the cross for our sins, will not hesitate to embrace with those same arms the one who comes seeking mercy.
Most especially is the word of God addressed to us today in the words of the two men in dazzling garments, addressed then to the frightened women at the tomb, addressed today to us gathered in our loss: Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised. We have brought Father Raymond’s body here for burial, the body washed by the saving water of Baptism, the body nourished with the body and blood of Christ, the body anointed with holy Chrism in Confirmation and Ordination, the body offered willingly to the service of God in monastic profession. It is indeed a holy temple. But it is not Father Raymond. In the same way that he followed the one who said, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit, so also now does he reign with the one who, first among the dead, rose glorious to everlasting life. We are simply taking our leave, offering our affectionate farewell, in anticipation of our own entry into that wondrous mystery of the Communion of Saints.
At the conclusion to the Prologue to his Rule, Saint Benedict tells us: “Never swerving from his instructions, then, but faithfully observing his teaching in the monastery until death, we shall through patience share in the sufferings of Christ that we may deserve also to share in his kingdom.” Father Raymond did that, faithful to his vows. We confidently trust that the Lord, in his turn, with faithfully uphold him, according to his promise, and has not let his hope be in vain.
Abbot Placid, as usual, nails it. I did not know Father Raymond long, but I nonetheless mourn the loss of a friend.
I met Father Raymond once–on my first and only visit to Belmont Abbey. He gave me a tour and helped me
to renew my promises as an Oblate. He was a good guy–I liked him.
Pax
Ed Kelly
Thanks for this post. I was really moved by Abbot Placid’s homily that day and loved the chance to read it.