My Favorite Part of My Job

When my four sons were young, my second son, Danny, had a school project in which he had to ask his parents about their jobs and what part of their job they liked best. When Danny asked, “Mom, what is your favorite part of your job?” he couldn’t believe my answer: FUNERALS! There are many things I love to do in my job as Directory of Liturgy and Music. I love working with children and youth - the Friday School Masses, Religious Education Services, Children’s Choir, the Christmas youth choir, young Cantors, training servers, preparing for celebrating the sacraments. I love searching for music that makes our small, but wonderful adult choir praise the Lord well with all the talent and dedication they bring to their music ministry. I enjoy interacting with and training those men, women, youth, and children who serve our parish through a liturgical ministry: Lectors, Eucharistic Ministers, Servers, Cantors, and Ministers of Hospitality. It is a prayerful experience planning liturgies, choosing music that reflects well the Scriptures we hear proclaimed and the feast we celebrate, or planning wedding liturgies with young couples who are so full of hope and promise. Well, you get the idea....

As for funerals, there is certainly sadness because of the loss of a person who was loved. Looking at pictures and hearing the stories about the person, I often wish I could have known him or her, or known the person better. I’ve seen pain at the time of a funeral because the death was sudden, or followed a long illness, or was the result of a tragic accident, or the person was young – I can’t even imagine the pain of burying one’s child – no matter the age. But besides pain and sorrow I see people of great faith and hope in the midst of their loss. All of us will die some day, and all of us have to face a day when we lose someone close to us. I have lost numerous family members and friends of all ages – from sickness, from accidents, from suicide (a niece and two young students I had taught). The most difficult deaths were my dad’s slow death three years ago and my mother’s unexpected death twelve years ago.

So why are funerals the favorite part of my job? There is something very prayerful and very powerful about celebrating our Catholic “Rite of Christian Burial.” I feel both privileged and blessed to join the family and friends of the deceased as we gather along with the priest, the server, the Resurrection Choir, and we all become a community of faith united in prayer. We not only commend the deceased person to God, but we also demonstrate Christian hope, give witness to our faith in the future resurrection with Christ, and allow our prayer to be a means of God comforting, nourishing, healing, loving and transforming us in a time of sorrow. Consider coming to the funeral of a parishioner even if you do not really know the person. It is a blessed experience of faith and hope.

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Felices los que lloran, porque recibiran consuelo. (Mt. 5: 4)

Judy Wargin, Director of Liturgy and Music