Funeral Mass For Fr Paul Ryan

HOMILY FOR THE FUNERAL MASS FOR FR PAUL RYAN
St. Martha’s Church, Strathfield

I was not lucky enough to have Rev. Professor Paul Ryan as one of my philosophy teachers when I was in the seminary. But I do recall with gratitude many things I learnt in philosophy that underpinned my theology, pastoral life and administration ever since. During my philosophy years a delightful English grandmother was studying with me who received her Bachelor’s degree in Theology when aged in her 70s and her Masters in her 80s. She was a convert from Protestantism and she once told me how in her earlier days she’d worried about what would happen to people like her father who she said were “in no fit state to meet God and yet are not so wicked as to deserve eternal punishment”. Eventually she discovered what she called ‘THE MERCIFUL DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY’ precisely for those very people aboout whom she’d been so concerned. So she received instruction, entered the Catholic Church, became a Hyde Park preacher for the Catholic Evidence Guild in London, and eventually came to Australia as a missionary, where the main object of her evangelical efforts would be agnostic seminary lecturers and students!

After her theological education Sylvia might have offered a more sophisticated explanation of the Church’s faith in purgatory than the half-way house of her youthful conversion; for one thing, far from being half-way between heaven and hell, purgatory is the anteroom of heaven! Yet there is an insight even in Sylvia’s early view about the catholicity – that is, the breadth – of God’s mercy as demonstrated by purgatory and our role in co-operating with His saving grace which I think is important. For the notion of Purgatory, even more than an article of Catholic faith, was for her an article of Catholic hope: a profession of hope for those – and who among us is not one of those – who still need some realignment of heart and mind on Christ’s when they die, in whom there are still hindrances and obstacles to that union with God for which they were made, whose life-long conversion process is not quite complete. Even after death, the profession of hope that is the doctrine of purgatory declares there is still room for grace to complete its divinizing work begun and accepted in this life; that God will stop at nothing, consistent with our natures and dignity, to answer Jesus’ prayer: “Father, I want all those you gave me to be in my company where I am, to share in my glory.” (Jn 17:24)

Another Protestant friend of mine, who remained a Protestant to his death, said to me towards the end of his life that his most common social engagement was attending funerals; indeed, he regarded himself as something of a connoisseur of funerals! He said he liked Catholic funerals best, partly because he found them more hopeful but, more importantly, because he got the sense that Catholics felt they could actually do something for those who had died, apart from mourning and reminiscing. He didn’t really understand the theological controversy about prayers for dead and having Masses said for dead loved ones; he only knew from that it was a strange Catholic thing to do. But it made sense to him humanly, psychologically, socially.
It turns out, of course, that he was right theologically as well: God in his Scriptures and the teaching of his Church reveals that it is indeed a good and pious thing to pray for the dead (2Macc 12:39-45 etc.) – that in the economy of salvation, we all have a role to play as intercessors for each other. Though this doesn’t diminish the numbness, the emptiness, or the sense of loss we often feel towards those we’ve loved who’ve died, it remains some comfort, I think, that we can still actively care for then, as we can for all God’s people living and dead, strangers and friends, by our prayers. Prayers for the dead, therefore, are an expression not just of our faith and our hope, but also our love.

Born in 1934 at Dulwich Hill, Paul Anthony Ryan entered St Columba’s Springwood at age 15, finished high school and studied there and at Manly for the priesthood, and was ordained by Cardinal Gilroy as one of the bumper crop of 1958 – the biggest year ever for Sydney. There are, of course, many ways of being a priest of Jesus Christ, even if the normal way for a diocesan priest is to be pastor of a flock. Early in his priestly life Fr Paul served in Clovelly parish; in mid-life in Waterloo, The Entrance and Eastwood; and in his later life he was Parish Priest here at St Martha’s Strathfield, from 1988 to until he went on to lesser duties in 2011. My Aunt Yvonne and Uncle John were parishioners here at that time and would sing the praises of their caring parish priest. At his hands babies were made children of God in Holy Baptism, souls made faithful through hearing the Holy Gospel, sinners made saints in Holy Reconciliation, bread and wine made the Body and Blood of Christ in the Holy Eucharist, lovers made spouses in Holy Matrimony, the sick made healthy or ready for life eternal – or at least for purgatory – in Holy Anointing.

Yet not all priests are parish priests, or not primarily so. Some are given roles of leadership or administration in the Church and Fr Paul was Dean of Concord Deanery for 18 years, and as a Board Member of The Catholic Weekly. If he was a beloved, wise and merciful pastor, he was also a scholar. His intellectual gifts were recognised early and so he undertook higher studies in philosophy at the Angelicum University of St Thomas in Rome. When he was defending his doctoral thesis, Cardinal Gilroy happened to be visiting Rome, and attended. After the defence the Cardinal thanked the examiners for being so kind to Fr Paul. The mild mannered pastor had a competitive streak and the occasional flash of Celtic temper. So he was understandably furious: ‘They weren’t kind,’ he said, ‘I worked hard for that degree!’ On return to Sydney he joined the Professorial Staff of St Columba’s Seminary from 1963 till its closure in 1977, and then at St Patrick’s College, Manly where he was Vice Rector until 1981. For so many years of trying to teach philosophy to often uninterested seminarians, he may be presumed to have served most of his purgatory on earth! So it is with great confidence, in the presence of so many of the parishioners he pastored and priests he formed that we commend to Almighty God this faithful priest and scholar.

INTRODUCTION TO FUNERAL MASS FOR FR RYAN
St. Martha’s Church, Strathfield

We offer Mass today for the repose of the soul of Fr Paul Ryan, one of this year’s diamond jubilarians of priesthood. Famed for his long years as a philosophy professor for seminarians and as a pastor for Strathfielders, we commend him now to our merciful God.

Concelebrating with me today are Bishops Terry Brady, Tony Randazzo, Richard Umbers and Bede Heather, most of the surviving priests from his year in the seminary – the bumper crop of 1958 – the Vicar General Fr Gerry Gleeson, his friend Monsignor John Usher, the current Rector of the Seminary in which Fr Ryan so long served Fr Danny Meagher, and many other clergy of the Archdiocese and beyond.

I welcome Fr Paul’s friends and family, including his sister Barbara, brother-in-law Joe, and nieces and nephews, Michael, Suzanne, Jenny, Cath, Gerard, Trish and David, and their families. I also recognise many of the faithful of this his last and most beloved parish.

I invite all of you to join me in asking Christ the Priest to reward this faithful servant for his six decades of service of God and his people by including him in the heavenly philosophy class!