SAID not MAID

Homily at the Funeral

of the Late Leo Goulet

It’s painfully clear that some of our fellow Canadians are so terrified of death that many have embraced so-called medical assistance in dying, or MAID.

Today I would like to share with you an experience of SAID, spiritual assistance in dying, because that is what Leo Goulet had. He died surrounded by the prayer of the Church and of his loved ones; he died as he lived, supported by the grace of God and the love of his family.

We should all pray to be as blessed as Leo was in his final hours.

I arrived at Inglewood Care Centre at the same time as Marylin and Denise, having heard just minutes before that Leo was nearing the end. When we got to his bedside we found Michelle, who had just finished singing him Christmas carols.

Louise was on her way from the airport, but I thought we should probably start the prayers for the dying right away. It was a good decision insofar as one more voice might have made people think we had a whole church-full in Leo’s room.

The introduction to the prayers of commendation for the dying says that “Christians have the responsibility of expressing their union in Christ by joining the dying person in prayer for God’s mercy and for confidence in Christ.” At Leo’s bedside that responsibility was fulfilled with faith and devotion.

Reflecting on those precious moments in Leo’s room I found myself marvelling at the power and splendour of the liturgy we celebrated.

We began with a series of short scripture texts that express the full range of the promises of salvation and eternal life. The Gospel the family chose for this funeral Mass conveys the same thing—the assurance of paradise for those who put their faith in Christ.

And although we were only four in number, the room then filled with angels and saints as we prayed the litany invoking everyone from the patriarch Abraham to St. Teresa of Calcutta, with the resounding response “pray for him.” We prayed “Bring Leo to eternal life first promised to him in baptism,” and “Raise Leo on the last day, for he has eaten the Bread of Life.”

We commended Leo to his Creator and prayed that his home would be with God in Zion, which is another way of referring to Jerusalem, the holy city of our first reading from the prophet Isaiah.

We prayed that he would live in peace with Mary, with Joseph, and all the angels and saints, asking that he would see his Redeemer face to face, and enjoy the vision of God forever.

Hearing is widely thought to be the last sense to go when someone is dying. Recent research at UBC suggests that people may still be able to hear while in an unresponsive state at the end of their life. I sure hope that was true of Leo.

It’s hard to imagine that he did not hear the hope echoing as his family answered the prayers and litanies as if they were cheering him across the finish line. Whatever weeping there was took a distant second place to the joyful vision of a new Jerusalem.

I might mention here that one of the litanies took us back to the beginning of the history of salvation. In a most unusual prayer, we asked that Leo be delivered from every distress as God rescued Noah from the flood and Job from his sufferings.

We prayed that he be delivered as Daniel was from the lions’ den and David from Goliath. But the litany ended “Deliver your servant, Lord, through Jesus our Saviour, who suffered death for us and gave us eternal life.”

The ritual says that the presence of a priest shows more clearly that the Christian dies in the communion of the Church, which indeed Leo did. It was my privilege to absolve him and to grant him the apostolic pardon by which the Church prays that the dying person be released “from all punishments in this life and in the life to come.”

While I do hope that Leo himself was listening, my prayerbook says that those who are praying with the dying will “draw consolation from these prayers and come to a better understanding of the Paschal character of Christian death.” I have spoken at such length about these prayers in the hope that all of you might also experience that consolation and understanding.

And although we put our faith in God’s goodness, let’s pause for a moment and think about Leo’s own goodness. It is beautifully captured in the second reading, an excerpt from St. Paul’s hymn to love. If you knew Leo or if you just listened carefully to the eulogy, you know very well just how fitting that text is.

Few of us may be blessed with his gentle temperament and loving manner, but all of us can resolve—to end with words from the psalm—to “serve the Lord with gladness,” as Leo did.

And may we all have ‘spiritual assistance in dying’ when our time comes.