ࡱ > C E B ) bjbj *6 ! Z Z , ' '' )' )' )' )' )' )' $ ( V+ M' M' C b' C C C " '' C '' C C C ڂ - C ' x' 0 ' C + C + C C C M' M' C ' + Z + : DAVID TUOHY AN APPRECIATION FUNERAL SERVICE GONZAGA COLLEGE CHAPEL 03.02.2020 Michael Jackson, archbishop of Dublin Death is no consolation to those who remain behind, nor can it be. We continue to live life as we know it and love it. But there is now a pattern or a jigsaw that, somehow, no longer adds up or no longer makes up as it used to. It is called loss. It is called bereavement. We do well to remember and to use those difficult and those tearful words. It is the death of David Tuohy that has gathered us together this morning. This we cannot, nor should we, forget. The rapidity of his illness, the suffering he endured faithfully, the suddenness of his final run, as he described it to me only last Sunday, will have left countless people reeling. Many may even have thought that David was abroad on one of those very industrious trips he often took to give generously of his capacity in teaching, learning and governance. He worked as tirelessly outside Ireland as he worked inside Ireland. And he worked for everyone selflessly and obediently. We do, let us remember, gather to honour a man who has thirteen books to his name and whose writing is a model of learning and lucidity. We gather to honour a man whose brilliance sat alongside his simplicity, whose generosity was about service of others rather than service of himself. And there is no doubt that God made him the person he was: free of spirit, obedient of heart, ready always to work at things others might, and did, sidestep. Taking all of it in is not possible. Taking some of it in is a real struggle in itself. Grief is raw for even the most theological of us, for even the most faithful of us, for even the most human of us. We have lost David. Remembering, in the Christian tradition in which David stood, is not a backward-looking movement but it takes us forward into what is unknown by all of us. This derives from the energy of this particular tradition and its self-understanding: the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ for whom the expression of himself in time was vital and dutiful and for whom time was never a limitation because in the beginning was The Word (St John 1.1). For us, memory builds on experience, on precedent, on insight and on revelation. David was ever alive to the strongest of visual imagery and having the right images for anything he was teaching mattered so much to him. It is little wonder, then, that as he faced his death from far out, (It is all palliative, he would say with honest realism from the very outset) he had a dream of which he told so many of us. He saw himself being lowered into the presence of Jesus on a sheet, the four corners of which were held by four groups of people: family; friends; colleagues from his work; Jesuits. He was clear about their care for him. He was clear about the presence of Jesus. He was clear also that this healing was not what any of us, himself included, might call: cure. But he was clear the four groups of people all together facilitated his access to the place and the person where he needed to be in a new way and in totally changed circumstances. He was not afraid to write himself into the narrative of Scripture with no expectation whatsoever of a personal reward. He simply knew that reward is not what Scripture does. Remembering forward: you may wonder how this works and anyone would be right to ask. To my mind, it means not only taking forward memories we have and hold from a life shared with someone like David; it means also being in the future by recognizing the impacts that someone like David has had on us and on countless others throughout his life lived by that person inside time as we and he know it, as we continue to live in the same time. It is therefore the application to life, at any time and at all times, of the lived motivations of someone like David who inspires us. Such inspirations in David have taken many forms: a combative and vulnerable humanity; a learned and loyal obedience; a faith that faced disappointment with proactive resignation; a willingness and a capacity to work tirelessly for others and for the sake of service particularly in the forms of ethos, culture and governance. Put simply this means: what institutions can do rightly and with proper compliance; how institutions can fulfil their potential for good within this framework. I must not give you the impression that David was pious for the sake of being pious. He would correct me instantly! Nor must I give you the impression that he was not convivial. David loved to eat and he delighted to eat with friends. And it was a true joy to be out for the evening with him. And all of this I will miss terribly, as I have no doubt many others will do. We in the Church of Ireland Dioceses of Dublin and Glendalough have so much for which to be thankful on this day of thanksgiving for the life of David Tuohy. He transformed our rather insufficient and inert understanding of our Anglican identity in which we slumbered somewhat by taking the Five Marks of Mission of the Anglican Communion and bedding them in to our psyche and our spirit. He did so in conjunction with two other academics with keen intellectual and spiritual antennae and a similar passion for research, The Reverend Professor Anne Lodge and Dr Maria Feeney. David also worked with great patience and ease with lay people and clergy at every point in the compass of our diocesan life. And David always did his homework and showed patience with learners. He also did simplification. For evermore, we in Dublin and Glendalough will remember The Five Marks as: Tell: as in proclamation Teach: as in teach, baptize and nurture Tend: as in respond to human need Transform: as in transform unjust structures Treasure: as in safeguard creation, and so will The Archbishop of Canterbury. The Five T-s came ready-made from the pen of Dr Tuohy. David also worked with and for The General Synod Board of Education with Professor Lodge on two particular reports that transformed our educational sector and gave us a handle on ourselves. He worked too with Alexandra College reshaping our expression of ethos and governance. He feared nothing and nobody. It is hardly surprizing he did not fear death itself or that God eased his passage beautifully. Yesterday was The Feast of The Presentation of Christ in The Temple. Less so in Ireland than in other cultures, this marks the end of the Season of Christmas. It does so with a realism and a painfulness for Mary: This child is destined for the falling and the rising of many in Israel, and to be a sign that will be opposed so that the inner thoughts of many will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own soul too (St Luke 2.34, 35). We are moving now towards Lent and Holy Week. Suffering and glory, life and death together contribute directly to The Temple, its people, its liveliness, its holiness. And we may see resonances and ricochets of David in this passage of Scripture too. We remember in sadness here and now all members of Davids family who so generously enabled flesh of their flesh to follow his vocation to be a Member of the Society of Jesus. We remember, in a different way, Christ Church Cathedral where David was the clear and obvious person to be the first Ecumenical Canon, along with The Reverend Lorraine Kennedy-Ritchie of the Presbyterian tradition. I want finally to let us rest in a passage of Scripture from earlier in January, during The Season of Epiphany. It was the inspiration of what David gave to us in our Come&C project in the diocese from St John 1.38, 39: Jesus turned and saw them following: What are you looking for? he asked. They said, Rabbi, which means Teacher, where are you staying? Come and see, he replied. The same Gospel tells us: In my Fathers house are many staying-places. (St John 14.2) Our hope and trust are that, for David, there is a staying-place in that house. One final thing I wish to do, as an expression of our gratitude to The Society of Jesus in so graciously letting us learn from and with David. 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