{"id":14460,"date":"2012-05-02T19:11:44","date_gmt":"2012-05-03T01:11:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=14460"},"modified":"2013-05-13T16:44:34","modified_gmt":"2013-05-13T22:44:34","slug":"remembering-cody-unterseher","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/02\/remembering-cody-unterseher\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Cody Unterseher"},"content":{"rendered":"

Homily – Cody Unterseher Memorial Service
\n<\/strong>Rev. Dr. Maxwell E. Johnson, Obl.S.B.
\n<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We all thought, hoped, and prayed that Cody would be coming back to us; perhaps with limited peripheral vision, but coming back, indeed. But it was not to be.<\/p>\n

Cody\u2019s tragic, untimely, and unexpected death at age 36 makes concrete for us in a particular way that what we, as a community of scholars, study, teach, and learn, truly matters.<\/p>\n

A former teacher of mine \u2013 Gabriele Winkler \u2013 once said: “We must become fully permeated with Liturgy<\/em> in the very depths of our beings.” No one I know has better exemplified this permeation with Liturgy than Cody.<\/p>\n

As contributors to the blog, Pray Tell<\/em>, where Cody had some 74 entries, wrote in recent tribute to him:<\/p>\n

He had “scholarly insight, pastoral sensitivity, humor in the face of the ridiculous, and sheer joy for the liturgy.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

 <\/p>\n

“He showed us the value of ecumenism and that we aren\u2019t as far apart as we sometimes think.\u00a0He loved the liturgy and brought joy to his work, always.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And liturgical scholar Rita Ferrone said of him,<\/p>\n

\u201cThe knowledge and expertise he had he also shared gladly, performing prodigies of labor for friends and mentors and for his beloved parish.\u00a0Cody felt himself to have a mission \u2013 a mission of reconciliation. Not only did he encourage mutual appreciation as our ‘resident Episcopalian’ (as he once termed himself here), but he also rejoiced whenever he could be an instrument of peace between factions in the so-called ‘liturgy wars’.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cody was indeed permeated with the Liturgy, its history, its ritual diversity, its theology, texts, contexts, and spirit.<\/p>\n

In the hospital over the days before his death, his mother read to him from the Gospel of John, the Didache<\/em>, and the modern Eucharistic prayers of the Roman (from the 1998 translation I\u2019m sure) and other Rites, during which he indicated his recognition and approval by a squeeze of the hand.<\/p>\n

Because he was permeated with Liturgy, Cody had been rehearsing for the moment of his death since the day of his baptism into Christ\u2019s Paschal Mystery many years ago. For, indeed, as St. Paul tells us, “we have been buried with Christ by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.”<\/p>\n

This Paschal pattern of life, this living out of our plunge into the dying and rising of Christ becomes the daily rhythm of life, the heart beat, the daily memento mori<\/em> that Cody also knew as a Benedictine oblate of Assumption Abbey in Richardton, North Dakota.\u00a0And because of this Cody knew that his death was not the end but a stage in the journey of his life.<\/p>\n

For, as Mark Searle (+1992) reminded many of us years ago in words written in his own funeral worship folder:<\/p>\n

If\u2026we were to learn from the celebration of the paschal mystery to surrender our lives totally to God in Christ, the death of the Christian would be but the further and final rehearsal of a pattern learnt in life and practiced over and over again in a lifetime of liturgical participation\u2026.[F]or those who have learnt from the prayers and rituals of the Christian liturgy how to let go of all that we cling to to save ourselves from the void, the final surrender of death will be a familiar and joyous sacrifice. (cf. Mark Searle, \u201cEditorial,\u201d Assembly<\/em> 5:5, March 1979)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To be permeated with Liturgy as Cody was, is also to be filled with a decidedly Eucharistic vision of the future of the Church when all would be one and, indeed, of the reign of God itself.<\/p>\n

Our first reading captures that vision so well:\u00a0\u201cOn this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wines, of rich food filled with marrow, of well-aged wines strained clear.<\/p>\n

A liturgiologist\u2019s view of heaven if there ever was one, where the Good Shepherd prepares the banquet table and the cups of wine are overflowing and abundant; the wedding at Cana with the good wines served last.\u201d<\/p>\n

No heavenly harps played on floating clouds, but a banquet, a celebration, a feast \u201cwhere the LORD<\/span> God will wipe away tears from all faces,\u201d that feast fore-tasted at every Eucharist and now enjoyed by Cody at the banquet table in heaven.<\/p>\n

Like parents and children, teachers are not supposed to have their students die before them.\u00a0Young friends and colleagues are not supposed to have their friends die, especially when they are together preparing for bright and promising futures in which death seems so far away, so distant, especially when candidacy exams had been passed and a dissertation proposal already approved.<\/p>\n

Cody\u2019s death at age 36 makes concrete for us in a particular way that what we do as a community of scholars truly matters.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the resurrection and the life,\u201d says Jesus, \u201cthose who believe in me, even though they die, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die.\u201d<\/p>\n

Yes, what we do as a community of scholars truly matters.<\/p>\n

But more than this, as Sister Mary Catherine Hilkert said to me when we learned the news of Cody\u2019s death, \u201call this stuff we do, is also true<\/strong>.\u201d And it is especially true for Cody!\u00a0May his memory be eternal.<\/p>\n

Maxwell\u00a0Johnson was Cody\u2019s academic advisor. This homily was delivered at the memorial service at Notre Dame on May 2nd.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Because he was permeated with Liturgy, Cody had been rehearsing for the moment of his death since the day of his baptism into Christ\u2019s Paschal Mystery many years ago.” – homilist Max Johnson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1321],"tags":[1990,587,631],"class_list":["post-14460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies","tag-cody-unterseher","tag-homily","tag-max-johnson"],"yoast_head":"\nRemembering Cody Unterseher - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/02\/remembering-cody-unterseher\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Remembering Cody Unterseher - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""Because he was permeated with Liturgy, Cody had been rehearsing for the moment of his death since the day of his baptism into Christ\u2019s Paschal Mystery many years ago." - homilist Max Johnson\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2012\/05\/02\/remembering-cody-unterseher\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-05-03T01:11:44+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-13T22:44:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Other Voices\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Other Voices\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/02\\\/remembering-cody-unterseher\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/02\\\/remembering-cody-unterseher\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Other Voices\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/4eec536020900714d992552a4e06f913\"},\"headline\":\"Remembering Cody Unterseher\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-03T01:11:44+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-13T22:44:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2012\\\/05\\\/02\\\/remembering-cody-unterseher\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":959,\"commentCount\":4,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Fr. 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