Day of 2 funerals brought a community to silence

Priest is mere vessel of God's healing, says archbishop

- Design Pics photo "It was an astounding experience of people, out of this deeply felt need, longing for the Lord, longing for a word when all words were failing them." Archbishop Richard Smith

By GLEN ARGAN
WCR Editor

The memory still remains strong for Archbishop Richard Smith of the day more than 10 years ago he celebrated two funerals in Sheet Harbour, N.S., population 828.

That day exemplifies for him the grace that God brings to others through the priesthood.

In the morning, Smith celebrated the funeral of an older parishioner well known in the close-knit community who had been sick at home for many years.

The afternoon brought the funeral of a teenage boy who had been trapped in the car he was riding in with three others when it went off the road and into the water.

"They were two different experiences of death that each touched the whole community profoundly.

Words were failing

"It was an astounding experience of people, out of this deeply felt need, longing for the Lord, longing for a word when all words were failing them."

The whole community was silent, Smith said, not knowing what to say to each other.

"By God's grace, I knew and everyone knew that in those celebrations those people were profoundly touched precisely by the presence of Jesus Christ by his word and his body and blood."

The two funerals underlined for him how God works through the priest to bring healing to a suffering people.

"You serve as a priest and you know that you are pure instrument of God's healing. It's not you."

Smith served as assistant pastor in Truro, N.S., for four years after his ordination in 1987. After four years of study in Rome, he returned to parish work for another seven years before being appointed bishop of Pembroke, Ont.

Those seven years took him to Sheet Harbour, Bridgewater and two parishes in Halifax. Along with serving as pastor, he taught at St. Peter's Seminary in London, Ont., and eventually became vicar general of the Halifax Archdiocese.

"They all brought their own joy," he said. "The greatest joy was to be the parish priest."

In that role, he gathered people together for Sunday Eucharist, proclaimed the Gospel, worked with people to understand their faith and helped them to grapple with their sufferings.

"There is so much pain out there, so much suffering," he said.

The priest helps people to live out of hope, not despair, because of the Gospel.

"That brings such a tremendous consolation."

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