Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time/Glen Smith Funeral Mass

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches a way of life that was first called blessed by Israel’s prophets and teachers of wisdom. The blessings are paradoxical in that they do not at all reflect the usual wisdom of the world.

After all, how does it make sense to the greedy to be poor in spirit? How can we expect to see the proud acting with meekness, the violent making peace, or those who laugh with satisfaction at their own prosperity to mourn for those who are struggling at the bottom?

The Sermon on the Mount is a counter-statement to the received wisdom of pundits and politicians and of all whom St. Paul calls the powerful, the subtle, and the strong – those who use a self-interested calculus to prove that they count for something.

The way of the world relies so much on the “art of the deal” and other such projections of wealth and power that it is amazing, in a way, that the Sermon on the Mount is still in print – much less preached with regularity and received with respect by Christians and by others, even if they often hedge it about with cautious and careful interpretations.

More than most people of the world, bankers understand the difficulties of managing loans and debts, credit ratings and sound investments – all that it takes to make the transactions that help the world to go as it should.

Of all people, those who provide financial services recognize the conflicting claims of being rich and remaining poor in spirit; of using the necessary aggression to close a deal while being meek and humble of heart; of  acquiring the necessities of life and even the comforts and some of the “finer things” while, just as much, hungering and thirsting for justice and working in ways that make for peace.

Of all people, bankers and financiers who are good at what they do and, at the same time, well beloved by their families, friends and communities – who remain faithful to the wisdom of the gospel - these people are rare birds. So how did Glen Smith do it? How did he keep the balance of banker and disciple – the astute skills of the financial manager with the wisdom that is rooted in the teachings of Jesus? A world traveler who, in spirit and in real ways, never left home far behind? The host of a gathering who said little but who knew that what you really needed was another glass of wine – and quietly poured it?

And then there was his incandescent smile that was nourished from a taproot in the heart. His smile would come quietly to his face, and then would grow there, shedding the glow of geniality, welcome, understanding, and thoughtfulness to all who were present.

I do not think we will ever know HOW Glen did it, but we all gained a lot just by being with him WHEN he did it. And because Glen lived a life in the world according to gospel faith, he was, as Jesus promised he would be - “blessed” – grace-filled and happy – a witness to the truth of Jesus’ teaching, summed up in the Sermon on the Mount.

Glen did all of this in his typically understated way. Most people burden the Sermon on the Mount with footnotes and interpretations. Glen’s response – to use a favorite expression of his – was to say in so many words: “It is what it is.” That was his summary assessment that it was true. And having said that, he followed up his assessment with an uncomplicated acceptance and a firm resolve to live by it, not telling anyone how he did it or even why.

Thanks to Glen’s witness - more in deed than in word - we have reason to believe and to hope that there is much to be gained by acting with meekness, poverty of spirit, hungering and thirsting for justice, mourning the examples of injustice, and working for peace.

The depths of the man could not be easily sounded except by a few – especially his family – who sat with him of an evening and who absorbed as if by osmosis the wisdom and the kindness and the goodness that came from a heart that was firmly set in the right place.

Glen had plenty of things to say and advice to give – both at home and at work – but he was not oracular about it – he did not pontificate at the table or in the boardroom - he did not push his views on people even in private. He was understated so that you learned from him only if you listened quietly and carefully.

We are all grateful for the dynamic duo that Glen and Mary made of their marriage and the witness they gave to the power of faithful love. It is fair to say, I think, that Glen was the silent partner, who meekly, humbly, and in understated ways supported Mary, especially in his retirement, by adjusting his own routines so that she could dedicate herself to Catholic education in the years after the children were raised.

He was a wonderful father to Jennifer, Amy, and Josh, who cherish memories of their father’s gift of being fully present that Glen shared with each of them in quiet ways – and they knew that he was proud of them and their accomplishments.

At this point, I have said more about Glen than he would have said about himself, and I am aware of Mary’s instructions to “Keep the homily short.” Besides, Paul’s homily at another service for Glen in California next week will fill in more of the story.

For now, I think the following words of Shakespeare provide a fitting tribute for Glen: “He was gentle, and the elements so mixed in him that nature might stand up and say to all the world – this was a man.”

And because - in his understated way - Glen lived out the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount in so many beautiful ways, we have reason to trust that he has entered fully into the promises that Jesus makes to all of us: “Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land; the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God, and blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”

Fr. Stephen Rowan