In memory of BARBARA J. CORETTY
Colossians
3: 12-17
Romans 8:
18-30
John 14:
1-6, 18-21
Grace, mercy and peace be unto
you from God, our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.
Ted left this message for me:
“Could you stop by the house and visit with Mom? She’s finding her way.” Barbara had taken a visible change from
managing-day-to-day to the-end-is-near.
Her body was failing; her breathing short but steady; her eyelids
heavy. But Barbara was still very much
in control. As with all of her life, she
would be as much in control as she was able.
As she had done throughout her life, Barbara would be “finding her own
way” through death.
As I listened to Stacey and Ted
recall memories from her life, fondly and with great affection; it seemed to me
that Barbara lived through various stages or chapters in her life.
From the pursuit of academic
excellence in her own youthful studies to expecting excellence out of the
students she taught, balancing the expectations of being the wife of an
Episcopalian priest with the demands of motherhood, then completely recreating
herself in a new life out on Long Island working with and caring for the
elderly, all the while deliberately and methodically and frugally preparing for
her retirement years, then completely reinventing herself in life at Castle
Hill in Castleton and her volunteer service at The Anchor; each chapter was new
and different. In each episode, Barbara
was finding her way.
But you and I know, as indeed
Barbara knew, that you can’t control everything. Life has its ups and often lot of downs that
catch us by surprise. When determination
failed, that’s when hope took over. And
even in her lowest experiences, Barbara never gave up hope, or faith, or
love. So Ted wanted to use a reading
from I Corinthians 13 at today’s service: “So faith, hope and love abide, these
three; and the greatest of these is love.”
But Barbara gave us other
instructions! The first reading shared
from the epistle to the Colossians was printed on a bookmarker buried in her
Bible. It describes love as not just an
emotion, but rather as a way of life.
Love defines how you treat others and yourself because it is grounded in
the knowledge of the reality of God’s love for us.
Then a ribbon was firmly fixed at
the eighth chapter of Romans. Beginning
with suffering, a suffering that Barbara experienced, St. Paul proceeded to
hope in the knowledge that God has a plan and purpose for all of us. Battling against cancer, Barbara’s suffering
could never deter her determination nor defeat her hope.
Perhaps we all like to think
that we’re in control of our lives. We
may even be obsessive/compulsive about it!
But we never really find our way until we let go and trust in the One
who said: “I am the way and the truth and the life.” In Jesus, life and eternal life are a free
gift, given and shared unconditionally.
Did you hear that, Barbara? It’s
free!
This complicated, but wonderful,
journey of life that we’re on – FREE!
Drinks on your vacation to
Hawaii? COMPLIMENTARY!
The final crossing to Paradise? Paid for you by someone else, someone who
gave his life for you in love.
Barbara, you probably like to think that you had the last word, that you
were in control right to the very end, that you saved your last breath for when
Ted and Stacey were not around, that out of love you were “finding a way” to
spare them the pain.
But the truth is, the promise is, that when you found Jesus, or better
put, when you trusted that Jesus found you, that’s when you found the way through
this life to life everlasting. Amen.
May the
peace of God which passes all understanding keep our hearts and minds in Christ
Jesus until life everlasting. Amen.
Rev. James H. Slater
St. Luke’s Lutheran Church – Valatie, NY
Rockefeller Funeral Home – Rensselaer, NY
May 11, 2013
