[somber brass muic]
- Father Michael Duffy: We Franciscans are a little odd
and one of our oddities is there's a form we fill out
and it's called "On My Death."
It says where you want your funeral Mass to be,
who you want to do the homily, and et cetera like that.
So 9/11 happened on a Tuesday.
Well, the next day the phone rang
and it was our provincial in New York.
And he said, "Mychal wanted you to do the homily."
And I said, "Well, yes, but this is different.
"It should be someone with a little more import.
So I think you should do it."
And there was a long pause.
And he said, "But Mychal wanted you."
So I mean, what are you gonna say to that?
"Family and friends of Mychal Judge.
Good morning everyone..."
I said to myself,
"When I see Mychal, I'm gonna kill him." [laughs]
"I stand in front of you and honestly feel
"that the homilist at Mother Teresa's funeral
had it easier than I do." [congregation laughs]
There were 3,000 people at his funeral.
The church wasn't big enough to hold them, they were outside.
Bill Clinton was there, Hillary Clinton, all New York.
And the moment arrived, I stood up,
and I reached in to get my glasses,
and I couldn't get to the pocket
because my vestment was covering them.
Thank goodness I'd practiced it because I couldn't read it!
"He loved to bless people, and I mean physically,
"even if they didn't ask! [congregation laughs]
"A little old lady would come up to him,
"and he'd put his big, thick Irish hands and press the head
till I think the poor woman would be crushed."
Everyone thought that Mychal Judge was their best friend.
He'd remember significant things in their life
and he would write a little note, just one or two lines.
Of course, they'd write him back.
So he had a big black satchel filled with letters to answer.
"He would say to me once in a while, 'Michael Duffy' --
"he always called me by my full name -- 'Michael Duffy,
"you know what I need?'
"And I would get excited
"because it was hard to buy him a present or anything.
"I said, 'No, what?'
"'You know what I really need?'
"'No, what Mike?'
"'Absolutely nothing. [congregation laughs]
"'I don't need a thing in the world.
"'I am the happiest man on the face of the Earth.
"'Why am I so blessed?
"'I don't deserve it.'
"Mychal Judge's body was the first one
"released from Ground Zero.
"His death certificate has the number one on the top.
"Of the thousands of people who perished
"in that terrible holocaust,
"why was Mychal Judge number one?
"And I think I know the reason: Mychal's goal and purpose
"in life was to bring the firemen to the point of death
"so they would be ready to meet their maker.
"Mychal Judge could not have ministered to them all.
"It was physically impossible -- in this life.
"In the next few weeks, we're going to have name after name
"of people who are being brought out of that rubble.
"And Mychal Judge is gonna be on the other side of death
"to greet them, instead of send them there.
"And so this morning, we come to bury Mike Judge's body,
"but not his spirit.
"We come to bury his voice, but not his message.
"We come to bury his hands, but not his good works.
"We come to bury his heart, but not his love.
Never his love."
["That Kid in the Fourth Grade Who Really Liked the Denver Broncos" by Chris Zabriskie]