{"id":4503,"date":"2019-12-09T05:32:13","date_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/doxaweb.blog\/?p=4503"},"modified":"2019-12-09T05:32:13","modified_gmt":"2019-12-09T11:32:13","slug":"homily-at-the-mass-of-christian-burial-for-bishop-paul-sirba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/doxaweb.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/09\/homily-at-the-mass-of-christian-burial-for-bishop-paul-sirba\/","title":{"rendered":"Homily at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Paul Sirba"},"content":{"rendered":"

Father Joseph Sirba, brother to Bishop Paul Sirba<\/strong><\/a> and a priest of the diocese of Duluth, delivered this homily at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Paul on Friday, December 6, 2019, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary.<\/strong><\/a>
\nAudio version:<\/strong>
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\n 
\nTranscript:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before I say a few words, I just wanted to mention one thing: there\u2019s going to be a memorial Mass for Bishop Paul Sirba at Maternity of Mary Parish in Saint Paul<\/a> <\/strong>where he served as a pastor. That will be this coming Monday at 6:30. So please pass the word to people in the Cities who may be interested in attending.
\nArchbishop Hebda, most reverend bishops, my brother priests, deacons, religious sisters, members of the various ecclesial communities present, and my brothers and sisters in Christ:
\nOn behalf of my brother John, my sister Cathy and my mother Helen, we want to thank all of you for your outpouring of love and support to us at this time of loss, and also for the honor that you have paid to our brother by your presence here today. It means a great deal to us all.
\nI know that all of us here were stunned to learn that Bishop Paul had died this past Sunday. And, in fact, many of you have told me that when you learned of his death, you said, \u201cThere must be some mistake. It must be someone else who had died.\u201d And others have told me that they heard what was said, but that the words didn\u2019t register. My brother was on his way to celebrate the 8:00 a.m. Mass at St. Rose in Proctor when he died. He had just left the rectory and was about to cross the parking lot when he collapsed, and the guys who were plowing saw him and rushed over to do CPR, and an ambulance was on the scene in less than 10 minutes. Bishop Paul was rushed to the hospital and the medical staff did all they could, but they were never able to get his heart beating again.
\nIt\u2019s very likely that he was dead the moment he collapsed. In the midst of the snowstorm, Father John Patrick was able to get to the hospital via a police cruiser and to administer the sacraments. And I want to thank both Father John and our wonderful police officers for that. They really do protect and serve.
\nMost of you don\u2019t know that our bishop did have a heart problem. My sister, who has been a nurse for many years, told me that what it was called is a third degree heart block. If you want to find out more about that, you can ask her. Five or six years ago the bishop had a pacemaker installed to help correct this, but, obviously, you could only do so much.
\nMy brother loved the Lord very much. Jesus Christ was the center of his life. In his private chapel \u2013 which I spent a little bit of time in a couple of days ago \u2013 he had three books currently that he was reading. One was the Holy Bible. Another was called In Sine Jesu<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, a book by a Benedictine monk subtitled The Journal of a Priest at Prayer<\/em>. And also, he had Volume 2 of The Letters of Saint Teresa of Jesus<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. I presume he probably had already finished Volume 1.
\nAnd along with his books, I found his personal journal. And it contained some notes about what he had read as well as some of his own personal meditations. Here are just a few of his entries:
\n\u201cJesus said, \u2018Tend the flock. Feed my sheep.\u2019\u201d
\n\u201cFather, all things are possible in you.\u201d
\n\u201cWe are called to be another Paraclete, like another Christ, so that we can console.\u201d
\nBishop Paul was a humble man. He never had any desire for accolades. He was not ambitious in the bad sense of the word, and he certainly never aspired to be a bishop. In fact, some of you may recall that when the papal nuncio, Archbishop Pietro Sambi, called him and said that Pope Benedict had chosen him to be the new Bishop of Duluth, he first replied, \u201cYou don\u2019t mean my brother, do you?\u201d To which Archbishop Sambi replied, \u201cWe are aware that he is there.\u201d And I\u2019m still wondering what the archbishop meant by that.
\nBishop Paul, above all else, had a desire to share Christ\u2019s love. He was a Catholic through and through. He was raised in a home by loving parents who shared with him their love for God through their example, encouragement, prayers, guidance and sacrifice. There were no compromises either in belief or practice. There were no deviations from what Christ taught through His church. And Bishop Paul embraced that faith; however, that is not to say that he did so blindly.
\nQuite the contrary: He had a very good mind. He was second in his class at Holy Angels Academy<\/a><\/strong> in Richfield where he went to high school. And he was trained by the best at Saint Thomas College<\/strong><\/a>: Monsignor Henri DuLac, Father James Stromberg<\/strong><\/a>, Dr. Richard Connell, Father George Welzbacher<\/a><\/strong>, Father James Reidy<\/a><\/strong>, and Dr. Thomas Sullivan taught him how to think correctly and to analyze arguments on his own.
\nThose of us who are graduates of Saint Thomas \u2013 or were graduates in those days \u2013 received a great gift from these great teachers, and I know it pains us all so much to see how far Saint Thomas<\/a> <\/strong>has fallen these days.
\nAnother great priest from Saint Thomas who was instrumental in Bishop Paul\u2019s formation was and is Father Roy Lepak<\/strong><\/a>, who has been a spiritual director to many priests here in Minnesota and has guided many of us who are here today as we\u2019ve sought to grow in our union with God. This Aristotelian-Thomistic foundation Bishop Paul received built on his Catholic upbringing and, coupled with his desire to serve God and grow in God\u2019s love, allowed him to be an excellent spiritual director at both Saint John Vianney Seminary<\/strong><\/a> and Saint Paul Seminary<\/strong><\/a>, as well as a much beloved pastor at Maternity of Mary parish in Saint Paul.
\nI know that all the priests of our diocese were overjoyed to learn that Father Paul had been appointed pastor and shepherd of our diocese. As a former pastor of a parish, we knew that with his pastoral experience, he was never going to send us new directives to read or forms to fill out during Holy Week. We also knew that he would understand both the joys and the sorrows that come from being a parish priest and, for that, I know that we are all grateful.
\nI had a unique relationship with my brother the bishop, because my bishop was my brother. We had our own little joke when we talked on the phone. Often, instead of using our first names as we had done all of our lives, if I called him, I would say, \u201cHello, Bishop Sirba. This is Father Sirba.\u201d Or he would call me and say, \u201cFather Sirba, how are you?\u201d I know that there are more than a few priests who have brothers who are bishops, but as far as we knew, we were the only two who served in the same diocese. Of course, I always reminded him that I was here first.
\nMy vantage point as his brother did allow me to understand, in some ways, the life of the bishop. At least I got a glimpse of it. I deliberately stayed away from discussing diocesan business with him, and he also with me. Instead, we talked about our family, history, politics and other subjects of mutual interest. However, his role was different than mine. He was a successor of the apostles: He was a visible sign we Catholics have of that apostolic succession which goes back to Saint Peter himself. He was what made our one, holy, Catholic and apostolic church here in our diocese apostolic. And that in fact is what every Catholic bishop is. That is a beautiful gift of God to us. Another thing is this: every bishop has the fullness of the priesthood. I used to joke when others were around that once he had been ordained a bishop, I was the only one who had persevered in my vocation. However, the reality was that it was he, through the grace of holy orders, that had received the fullness of the priesthood.
\nAs bishop, he was a complete priest. Father Jean Galot, in his book Theology of the Priesthood<\/a><\/em><\/strong>, speaks about how the priest shares in the threefold ministry of Christ as priest, prophet and king. But he also goes on to say that, above all else, the priest is alter Christus<\/em> in the sense that he is a pastor and that, of course, is a Latin word for shepherd. And Bishop Paul was that. In fact, all bishops are shepherds. They are the chief shepherds of their flocks. As Jesus said, \u201cI am the good shepherd. I know my sheep and my sheep know me.\u201d And Bishop Paul knew his sheep.
\nTo be a bishop is a difficult thing that I saw. Do you ever stop to think that the task of a bishop is to do the very best he can to see that everyone in his diocese gets to heaven? And I mean everyone: Catholics and non-Catholics alike. To any bishop who takes his vocation seriously, that in fact is a daunting task and one that they could only succeed at with the help of God, and that is why all of us need to pray and sacrifice for our bishops every day.
\nBishop Paul was a shepherd. He was a good shepherd, and there were a number of ways that that was apparent.
\nFirst, he was a father to his priests, and sometimes that requires a great deal of love and patience. If you think being a father to your children is hard, that\u2019s nothing compared to being a father to your priests. There\u2019s a Latin saying sui generis<\/em>: It means \u201cof his own kind.\u201d Sui generis<\/em> is really just a fancy way of saying we\u2019re all unique. That\u2019s certainly true for us priests. Our presbyterate knows me well. And they\u2019ll appreciate this comment made by our bishop: Occasionally when someone would tell him something about me, he would pause for a moment, and he would say, \u201cYep, that\u2019s my brother.\u201d
\nBut, in fact, we priests all want and need a spiritual father. Just like any son, we desire our father\u2019s approval and we want to know that what we are doing is pleasing to him. We want his guidance, and we seek his support, and we want to be one with him in building up the church. I would even say this: We want to be corrected when necessary. This special relationship only breaks down when a bishop himself falters or speaks with a discordant voice or is unkind. As the scriptures say, if the trumpet sounds and the call is not clear, who will get ready for battle?
\nBishop Paul was also a pastor and a shepherd to his flock. Many people have commented on his kindness and gentleness. Sometimes, when you are too close to another person, you don\u2019t see the things others do until they\u2019re pointed out to you. When he met people, they could tell that he cared about them. They were attracted to him because they could see in him the love of Christ. He was a channel of God\u2019s grace. Those who were hurting were consoled because they knew he hurt with them. And those who were rejoicing knew that he was rejoicing with them. When people met him, they felt accepted. To them, he wasn\u2019t just Bishop Paul; he was my friend, Bishop Paul. And if they were not necessarily living rightly, after they met him, they were inspired to strive to live like him.
\nBishop Paul was also a leader. He knew it was his job to hand on the faith, to hand on what he had received. He was not going to wrap his talent up and bury it in the ground. Rather, he was resolved to make five and ten more with it. And, to that end, he never compromised with the faith, and he taught what the Church teaches \u2013 not only because he was a bishop \u2013 but also because he believed it. As Father Mike Schmitz<\/strong><\/a> said, \u201cHe was so much like Jesus: gentle with people and uncompromising with the truth.\u201d A true shepherd and father.
\nOne thing that we discussed often was the decline of Christianity in the western world. Bishop Paul foresaw \u2013 and I believe he was right, and time will tell… we shall see \u2013 that a harsh persecution is coming soon. There are many signs this may be upon us. That is why we need to pray even more for our bishops. They\u2019re often under great pressure to give in to the demands of the world. And history has shown that, time and again, in times of great turmoil, many have done just that. So let us pray hard for our bishops and we must let our bishops know how much we need them, and how much we appreciate their care and concern for us, and the fact that they love us enough to speak the truth to us even when we don\u2019t want to hear it. Bishops are human as are we all. They have hearts that break, they have trials they endure, and temptations they must fight. In the times to come, we must pray that they be great leaders and they do not conform to the demands of the world. No one remembers the bishops of England who, during the reign of Henry VIII, swore the oath of supremacy, which effectively meant they were renouncing and rejecting the spiritual authority of the pope as head of the church and successor of Saint Peter. But we all remember Saint John Fisher \u2013 the bishop of Rochester and chaplain to the King\u2019s own mother \u2013 who refused the oath and was ordered beheaded by a vindictive king. But it is bishops like Saint John Fisher<\/strong><\/a> and Saint Charles Borromeo<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 and more recently, Cardinal J\u00f3zsef\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>Mindszenty<\/strong><\/a> and blessed Cardinal Clemens August von Galen<\/strong><\/a>, who defied the Nazis \u2013who are remembered and who are loved by their people for being fearless shepherds who were willing to protect their flocks even with their very lives.<\/span>
\nIt\u2019s going to be hard to say goodbye for now. Yet our readings today… in them, I found inspiration and comfort.
\nSaint Paul<\/strong><\/a> says to us, \u201cBehold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all fall asleep, but we shall all be changed, in an instant, in the blink of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.\u201d He goes on to say, \u201cWhere, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? Thanks be to God who gives us victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!\u201d
\nThe Book of Wisdom<\/strong><\/a> also reminds us that \u201cthe souls of the just are in the hand of God and no torment will touch them. Chastised a little, they shall be greatly blessed because God tried them and found them worthy of himself.\u201d
\nAnd finally, Jesus reminds us<\/strong><\/a> that unless the grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat. But if it dies, it produces much fruit. Our Lord goes on to say: \u201cWhoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.\u201d
\nI recently read Saint John Paul\u2019s book, Rise, Let Us Be On Our Way<\/a><\/em><\/strong>. He wrote the book on the forty-fifth anniversary of his ordination as bishop in 2003 and he wrote it to and for bishops. In it, he tells us of his experience as a bishop, and how he found joy in his vocation. Bishop Paul had an inner joy that you could feel, and his love of God was attractive. I think he was inspired in his ministry by these great bishops I\u2019ve just mentioned, and especially by Pope John Paul<\/strong><\/a>, who was so much an inspiration for his priesthood and for many priests of my generation. Pope John Paul began his pontificate by telling us and the whole world: \u201cDo not be afraid. Do not be afraid to follow Christ wherever he might lead you.\u201d Near the end of his pontificate, he again quoted Jesus<\/strong><\/a>: \u201cArise, let us be on our way.\u201d Bishop Paul was about that very thing. He was on his way. These last few years were very difficult ones for him, and yet there was a serenity about him. He trusted in God. He placed all that he did in God\u2019s hand, but first, by giving what he did to Our Blessed Lady, whom he loved very much.
\nHe was on his way.
\n\"burial\"In our Lord\u2019s providence, once this task of the last few years was completed, God saw fit to call Bishop Paul from this life to his eternal home. Bishop Peter Christensen<\/strong><\/a>, his very dear friend, said to me: \u201cI am jealous.\u201d And he meant jealous because Bishop Paul\u2019s work here on earth was done and his was not. And in that sense, we should all be jealous too, because we are still at work. We are on the way. So then, let us continue on the way. Let us rise and all be on our way, each one of us following Christ, the good shepherd until he sees fit to call us home as well.
\nEternal rest grant unto him, O Lord.
\nAnd let perpetual light shine upon him.<\/em>
\nMay he rest in peace.
\nAmen.<\/em>
\nAnd may his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace
\nAmen.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Father Joseph Sirba, brother to Bishop Paul Sirba and a priest of the diocese of Duluth, delivered this homily at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Paul on Friday, December 6, 2019, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary. Audio version: [soundcloud url=”https:\/\/api.soundcloud.com\/tracks\/724054639″ params=”color=#ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”300″ iframe=”true” \/]   Transcript: Before I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,21,65,44,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-catholic-media","category-events","category-holy-orders","category-pope-john-paul-ii","category-priesthood"],"yoast_head":"\nHomily at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Paul Sirba – doxaweb<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/doxaweb.com\/blog\/2019\/12\/09\/homily-at-the-mass-of-christian-burial-for-bishop-paul-sirba\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homily at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Paul Sirba – doxaweb\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Father Joseph Sirba, brother to Bishop Paul Sirba and a priest of the diocese of Duluth, delivered this homily at the Mass of Christian Burial for Bishop Paul on Friday, December 6, 2019, in the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Rosary. 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