A Priest of Courage and Humility

(Homily for the Funeral of Rev. “Jerry” Bleaux: September 4, 2009)

by Monsignor Peter R. Riani

Father Jerry Bleaux

An Outline

Introduction: As most of us know, on August 4th, the Feast of St. John Vianney, patron of parish priests, Pope Benedict declared this The Year of the Priest. I wonder if the Holy Spirit had the Diocese of Ogdensburg in mind! The loss of a Deacon just weeks from ordination, two active priests and a bishop is difficult to bear.

A. All of you lay people from around the Diocese just watched us priests walk in to join Father LaValley in celebrating Father Bleaux’ funeral Mass. I hope you got a good look at us. We may be dressed alike and some might say that we all come from the same seminary mold. But how wrong they would be! Any mold used to clone priests has long been broken and lies in an unmarked – and, one might say, moldy(!) grave somewhere.

B. Yet, we have much in common beginning with our humanity. Then, too, somewhere, sometime we fell in love with Jesus Christ and felt called to live out that love in service to His People in the ordained priesthood.

C. To do this we have many needs, some of them absolutely crucial: a living faith and its offspring, hope and love; a selflessness flowing from an immersion in the Holy Eucharist; a sense of the sacredness of the world and each person and a prayerfulness that is a way of life in response; - and many other needs as well.

D. Today, I would like to mention just two of those many needs: courage and its flip side, humility.

E. Courage. In today’s world of suspicion and vulnerability following the difficulties of some of our brothers, of the lack of vocations, ever-increasing work loads and the revolving door of bishops, we could easily identify with the disciples huddled and confused behind locked doors in the upper room and with them white-knuckling in the boat ready to sink on the stormy Sea of Galilee.

And yet we must hear the “Fear Not!” of Jesus as He ignores our locked hearts and calms the storm, asking us to renew over and over our commitment and the promises we made on the day of our ordination. Hard work with little recognition, disappointments, lack of understanding and downright loneliness are often there in place of the rose garden that Jesus never promised us. The garden he did promise us was a share in Gethsemane – where the seeds of resurrection were first sown. “Not my will, but yours be done!”

F. Humility. The foundation of courage. Without it courage is mere foolhardiness. St. Paul said it so well: “It is in my weakness that I am strong.” The acceptance of our weaknesses and, at the same time, the genuine love of ourselves without which we cannot love God or others, is true humility. It is rejoicing in the fact that we are loved sinners just like the rest of the human family. It is a sense of the sacredness of every human being and every particle of the entire universe.

Back in the mid-19th century, Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote an interminable and boring poem called Aurora Lee. However, somewhere in the poem she wrote these wonderful four lines:

Conclusion: Jerry Bleaux was no blackberry plucker, to say the least. He was a priest of courage and humility. He took off his shoes and held nothing back in his pursuit of the Burning Bush.

It was an honor and privilege for me to share his spiritual journey for many years. When he was leaving after a meeting, I would say to him, “Remember, Jerry, you are a damn good priest!” And he would say as he walked to his car, “I know it!” The wonderful peace of his final days is a precious memory for all who shared it. May he rest in the peace of the Lord he served so well.