Jesus began to show his disciples ...he must go up to Jrusalem and suffer greatly...

Arriving home yesterday, I feel I "have gone up to Jerusalem, and suffered greatly."...as we all must at various junctures in our lives.

The death of my "sister" Rosemary Fitzgerald Marthaler is a painful loss.

As Father Ken Vavrina said: : "She was a great lady!"

Quite often I think we can be so close to loved ones we see them with near sighted vision. Sometimes a voice from outside has to remind us of their true stature, lest we be too near sighted.

Yes Father Ken was right: "A great Lady!"

Some personal reflections:

From west and east they came:

Her Scottsdale winter friends traveled many miles to be there:

Jack and Suzanne, Regina and Dick, Gail and Pastor Martin, retired Mo. Synod Lutheran Pastor.

On her 90th birthday, they had prchased a rose bush for her yard. On the day of her funeral, Janet cut buds from that bush and gave these to them so they could put them on her casket.

From the west came Marilyn and Claudia, because Rosemary and I are "family" to them.

And so many more came.

For she left such a wide circle of love.

And the morning of her funeral, 2 eagles soared above the church.

As we sang... "On eagles' wings..."

And the evening of her wake, a brilliant rainbow appeared.

In the Second reading of her funeral mass, S.Paul declared:

"Hope shall not disappoint us because the love of God has been poured into our hearts!"

Rosemary was the most hope filled person I have ever known, and the words of Julia of Norwich well describe her life long attitude:

"All shall be well.

All shall be well!

All manner of things shall be well!"

And the love of God was poured into her heart and poured out again.

He circle of loving began with:

10 children,

25 grandchilren,

42 great grandchildren,

one great grand child.

but it rippled out from that circle far and wide.

She was truly the "hunter gatherer of friends!"

We have now "gone up to Jerusalem with her."

After a hurried flight I arrived in time to say for her the prayers for the dying and the comendation of the dead.

The Gospel today reminds us:

"What does it profit if we gain the whole world but suffer the loss of our soul?"

Indeed. Rosemary was never rich. In her earliest years of marriage she had 5 children in three and one half years...two sets of twins and one other, and 5 to follow.

She accumulated love and dispensed it abundantly....not material possessions.

We should all be so rich!

And so w pray:

"On the way up to Jerusalem,"

may the road rise up to meet us,

the wind be always at our back,

the sun shine warm upon our faces,

the rain fall soft upon our fields,

and until we meet Rosemary again:

may we ll be held in the palm of God's hand.