OBITUARY AND LEGACY

INTRODUCTION

The title of my sermon for this October 1^st feast day of St. Therese of Lisieux is, “Obituary and Legacy.”

This is a topic I’ve been interested in for years now.

I first heard about legacy while driving on a Sunday morning somewhere. I was listening to a  program on the car radio. A speaker said something like, “The big deal is making one’s will. I think the big deal should be: putting together one’s legacy.”

That hit me. Ever since I heard that radio program I have pushed In sermons from time to time the value of pulling together what we would like as our legacy. It’s something I think about from time to time. Better I think we all think about this without calling it thinking about our legacy. It’s what folks do in what Erikson calls the 8^th Stage of human psychosocial development. That stage is called: “Wisdom: Ego Integrity vs. Despair - [Late Adulthood, 65-death].”

An obituary is usually written after our death and by someone else. However, I’ve met folks who have everything arranged for their death - including their obituary. A legacy takes a lot of time and reflection and homework than an obituary.

ST THERESE OF LISIEUX

This theme of “Obituary and Legacy” hit me again today on this feast of the Little Flower: St. Therese of Lisieux.

Ida Gorres, in her book, The Hidden Face, The Life of Therese of Lisieux has the following opening paragraph to her book: “The cult of St. Therese of Lisieux has a history unequalled in recent centuries. This young nun who was born in 1873, and entered a convent at fifteen, died at twenty-four of galloping consumption. Never, in this short span of life, did she do anything that even attracted attention. The general estimate of her among the nuns of the convent community, with whom she had lived in close association for nine years, is expressed in a well-known anecdote: from the window of her sickroom Therese, during the last months of her suffering, heard one nun say to another: ‘Sister Therese will die soon; what will our Mother Prioress be able to write in her obituary notice? She entered our convent, lived and died - there really is no more to say.’”

And yes her obituary was brief and minimal. In time her legacy was heard all around the world - with a wide, wide world following and impact. Her autobiography, The Story of a Soul, was translated into many languages. Between 1898 and 1923 the autobiography sold 700, 675 copies and 2 ½ million copies of an abridged copy were sold - just in her own language alone: French.

Love, having the simplicity of a child, putting everything into God’s hands, could sum up her legacy. Better read her book - The Story of A Soul. Read Ida Gorres book, The Hidden Face, as well.

CONCLUSION

Right now most of us could write  ¾ of our obituary. Right now, some of us could pull together the first paragraphs of our legacy.

Legacy is autobiography for starters.

Legacy includes details and memories - but especially learnings from our experiences.

Legacy includes our dreams, our learnings, our hopes, what we perceive as our accomplishments.

But what about mistakes - even disasters in our story? Instead of despair - which is the opposite side of Ego-Integrity as mentioned in Erikson’s 8^th Stage of Psychosocial Development, the Christian knows about forgiveness. They know Jesus’ parable of going into the garden at the last hour. They know they story of Jesus forgiving the thief on the cross. The Catholic might know the story of St. Therese of Lisieux praying for the conversion Henri Pranzini in 1887. He had brutally murdered two women and a child. He showed no remorse - but Therese kept praying - and she read in the paper that he grabbed a crucifix and kissed it three times before his death by the guillotine.

The title of my homily is, “Obituary and Legacy”. I’m stressing: write one’s  legacy. Use paper or computer. Maybe it too will go viral after we go. Let those who find it after we die find out who we were and what we were about.

[Picture on top: Therese Martin aged 15]