Funeral: Robert Rocky Contardo
May 20, 2015
St. Michael’s Parish | Duluth
Father William C. Graham
Acts 10:34A, 37-43
PSALM:
1 Thes 5:4-11
John 6:35-40
Rocky Contardo believed in the Reign of God, in Christ, and in the Church; he was very secure, it seemed to me,in hisplace, his duties, and his hope.
I learned a very important lesson from him when I was a brand new, very young priest, a lesson about the table, what the table means, what the table does, who comes to the table and why. And also what the table means in both the short and the long run. One Sunday afternoon, decades ago, I was invited with Chuck and Karen and a number of the siblings and friends, to Betty and Rocky’s for conversation, cocktails and dinner. One of the young guys in our company was drinking a beer right out of the bottle. When we stood to go to the table, he carried the bottle with him. Rocky called for a glass. “Oh, that’s okay,” said the young man, moving, bottle in hand, to the table. “No,” Rocky said, “it’s not okay,” and saw that he was given a glass. We came to the table knowing that it was not just about pasta; we were invited to and were part of an event, a gathering of a family and their friends, a gathering of the people of God; not just any gathering, but a gathering at a holy table. Mr. and Mrs. Contardo knew that the table is the central focus of a family, and consequently the central focus of the church. Here are the things that count: The table, what is on the table, who is gathered around the table, what is prepared, blessed and shared and said at the table; all of this with a serving of expressed concern for those who have neither tables nor communion nor sustenance.
I am grateful enough for that lesson from Rocky, and from Betty, so many, many years ago, that I remember and think of it often, and have let that memory shape my approach to dining room tables generally and to altars specifically. The Contardosreinforced a lesson I had learned as a boy at home; we were not allowed to put our books on the tableafter school; the table was a sacred spot reserved for holy activity. I have been a priest for many years, and have gone off to college to study theology four different times; but my credentials as pastor and as a theologian have roots in that moment when the beer bottle was sidelined in favor of the more civilized beer glass. We were invited to an event that afternoon; we are invited to a similar event today; Rocky and Betty’s table pointed toward the Eucharistic table; the Eucharistic table points to and connects us with the banquet table set for us in the Reign of God. At Rocky and Betty’s table, just as at the altar, we have been offered and we have received a foretaste and promise of the paschal feast of heaven. Blessed are they who dine at the table in the Kingdom of God.
I like to think that Rocky was ready to die, and confident to meet the Lord. He was surely granted a gift that not all of the friends of God receive: the gift of a happy death. He was surrounded tenderly by Betty and their family. He had done faithfully what he promised to do. We then should then continueto live and proclaim the gospel in word and in deed because we saw him do it; we can imitate Rocky as he imitated Jesus; both of them knew about tables and communion.
We then, should continue to pursue the vision that the scriptures and our church’s life of prayer hold out for us, recognizing that in the big net, in the big tent, in the big church, there is room at the table for all of us: all “brothers and sisters / and those of every race and tongue,” all called to the new world where the fullness of God’s peace will be revealed, gathered people of every race, language and way of life, sharing in the one eternal banquet with Jesus Christ the Lord. We, all of us, are called to be “Saints among the Saints in the halls of heaven” (Eucharistic Prayer for Reconciliation I). This very Catholic understanding seemed, I think, to come naturally to Rocky and Betty and their family. For that, we thank him and them and, at the same time, give thanks and praise to God.
As we rememberRocky, so also do we pray that he be clothed in God’s justice for ever and ever: Amen!
A READING FROM THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES:
Then Peter proceeded to speak and said,* “In truth, I see that God shows no partiality.
You know the word [that] he sent to the Israelites* as he proclaimed peace through Jesus Christ, who is Lord of all,k
what has happened all over Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John preached,
how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth* with the holy Spirit and power. He went about doing good and healing all those oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.m
We are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and (in) Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
This man God raised (on) the third day and granted that he be visible,not to all the people, but to us, the witnesses chosen by God in advance, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.n
He commissioned uso to preach to the people and testify that he is the one appointed by God as judge of the living and the dead.*
To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him will receive forgiveness of sins through his name.”
THE WORD OF THE LORD
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF PAUL
TO THE THESSOLONIANS:
But you, brothers [and sisters], are not in darkness, for that day to overtake you like a thief.
For all of you are children of the light* and children of the day. We are not of the night or of darkness.
Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.
Those who sleep go to sleep at night, and those who are drunk get drunk at night.
But since we are of the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love and the helmet that is hope for salvation.
For God did not destine us for wrath, but to gain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live together with him.
Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, as indeed you do.
THE WORD OF THE LORD
A READING FROM THE HOLY GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN:
Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.
But I told you that although you have seen [me], you do not believe.
Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me,
because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me.
And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it [on] the last day.
For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him [on] the last day.”
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