Patrick Christopher Malloy
February 12, 1946 – October 9, 2014
October 20, 2014
Good evening, and grace and peace. It is very much for me an honor and a
privilege to share this evening in this service for Patrick Christopher
Malloy. To remember Pat’s life in all
its richness, to honor him for his life and service, to his family, husband,
father, son, and brother--his community, his church, his country. And an honor especially for me to share in
the sorrow of loss with family and friends, with all of you, family and
friends. With love to you, especially,
Vikki, and Brendan and Alyson, Megan and Brian and your girls, who have known
here in the morning of their lives such a loving grandfather. And so many rich memories. As we offer together the prayers of the
church, not just as we say the words but as we gather the faith and life and
witness of the whole Christian family and offer the deepest knowledge and
desire of our hearts to almighty God. As
we hear the words of scripture, the psalms, the lessons, the Good News of Jesus
Christ. Who as we turn to him has
forgiven our sins, and in his mercy and love and by his cross opened the way to
the fullness of life, and eternal life.
As I was thinking about Patrick in preparation for this
sermon I remembered a story in the Bible from the Book of the Acts of the
Apostles. In the 16th
Chapter. Paul and his companion Silas
have come to the city of Philippi, the largest city in the region of Macedonia,
and as a result of the disturbance caused by their preaching and miraculous
healings they are arrested and thrown in jail.
The night passes, as they are there behind bars they sing hymns and pray
together. And then suddenly there is a
great earthquake, and all the doors and locks are ripped from the walls of
their cells. When their jailer sees what
has happened he is overcome with fear—because in that Roman system the penalty
for a prison guard who loses his prisoner is summary execution. But as the dust settles, Paul and Silas call
out to him not to worry. Don’t be
afraid! They haven’t gone anywhere. And he is so overcome with gratitude that he
embraces them and then takes them to his own home, where they eat with him and
spend the remainder of the night. They
speak with him, pray with him, and in a miracle of the Holy Spirit this jailer
and his family become the first Christians in Philippi, the nucleus of a church
family that Paul would later say in his letter to the Philippians was
especially dear to his heart. In the
first chapter of that Letter he says to them, “I thank my God in all my
remembrance of you, always in prayer with joy, thankful for your partnership in
the gospel from the first day until now.
And I am sure that he who began a good work in you will bring it to
completion at the day of Jesus Christ.
It is right for me to feel thus about you all,” he says, “because I hold
you in my heart, for you are all partakers with me of grace, both in my
imprisonment and in the defense and confirmation of the gospel. For God is my witness, how I yearn for you
all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
And so, let us say this evening, how from the faith of one
man in the Department of Corrections, the Holy Spirit moving through him, the
seed is planted of Christian faith and life that spread in wider and wider
circles to touch so many lives, with generosity and care and love. A way to think about our friend Patrick. I remember how when he toured me around the halfway
house that he was in charge of up on the North Side not long after I had
arrived here back in 1994, he introduced me to several of those who were
there. At first I thought they were
colleagues, fellow workers, because of the tone of respect and affection in the
exchange. Then discovered they were, we
would say, residents of the facility.
But you could tell just in the interaction what kind of man Pat
was. And how that affected in such a
positive and meaningful way those around him.
Small moments. One relationship
at a time.
A friend in the 12 Step Movement years ago taught me this
saying: “the main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.” And for all kinds of reasons that phrase and
saying has come back to me over the past few weeks, and especially in my
thoughts and in my heart in those last days with Patrick both in the hospital
and at home.
I was remembering glimpses, moments. Some many years ago, some very recent. Lunches.
Ballgames. Quiet
conversations. Vestry meetings and
church gatherings. The pride he felt
when he looked at his kids. The tributes
that so many of his colleagues paid to him at that great retirement dinner at
the Blarney Stone. (Although Pat
certainly put a new spin on the word retirement in the years that
followed!) Of course the importance of
his family. So impressive to me as a
husband, a father. Megan posted one of
her wedding photos on Facebook—Patrick escorting her down the aisle. A beautiful moment, and that wonderful
smile! And how much joy in being a
grandfather! Remembering when the girls
were baptized. What a great day . . . .
Perhaps just right to recall the word from scripture, in 25th
chapter of St. Matthew, the Parable of the Talents, when the Great Lord returns
to see how well his employees have done with the tasks of stewardship that he
had given to them. “Well done, good and faithful
servant. You have been faithful over a
little, I will set you over much. Enter
into the joy of your master.” A great
word to remember today. Well done,
Patrick. Thinking of the courage, and I
think that really is the right word for Patrick in these past years, as he has
had so many adversities. Great
courage. Now, “enter into the joy of
your master.”
Patrick’s family selected the readings for this service, and
I want especially to highlight the reading from St. John’s Revelation, the 21st
chapter, and the wonderful vision revealing the great consummation and
completion and victorious conclusion of God’s great plan for us and for all of
creation. Every tear wiped away. Every sorrow comforted. Every burden and every pain lifted away. And the
one who created us and who sustains us:
“Behold, I make all things new.”
This is the promise of the savior who died on the cross to
cancel our sins and who rose from the dead on Easter morning as the first sign
of new life and life eternal in his name.
A promise for each of us even in these difficult times, when we
encounter suffering, pain, loss.
“Behold, I make all things new.”
In the sure and certain hope of life in Christ Jesus, what
we all have to be about this evening, with all the sadness that there is—what
we all have to be about is to learn to live every day of this short and
precious life in the love of God and of one another, serving God and one
another, knowing that to be such a privilege.
Jesus said, in my Father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told
you. I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go to prepare a place for
you, I will come again, and bring you to myself, that where I am, you may be
also.” “I am the resurrection and the
life, saith the Lord. He that believeth
in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”
Patrick reminded me from time to time that he was of Irish
descent. I’d like to invite us all as we
remember him and as we commend him to God,
to stand and turn to the blue hymnal, and let us sing together a
wonderful prayer and affirmation of
Christian faith, and a lovely Irish tune: hymn #488. “Be thou my vision.”
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