Kevin Andrews Funeral Homily

The Hon Kevin James Andrews.

On Monday 23 December, Archbishop Peter A Comensoli gave his homily at the St Patrick’s Cathedral to commemorate the Hon Kevin James Andrews.

St Peter, from whose letter we heard in the second reading, said later in the same letter, ‘always have a reason for your hope [in Christ Jesus], giving it with gentleness and respect and with a clear conscience.’ It is precisely the reason for his hope that Peter would say, as we heard,

Through your faith, God’s power will guard you until the salvation which has been prepared is revealed … This is a cause of great joy for you, even though you may … have to bear [with] all sorts of trials.

We might trace those combination of words, seeing how they point to where our lives may find meaning and purpose. There is reason to have hope, in faith, that our looked-for and longed-for destiny in God is a source of joy and safety now, even amid our daily trials.

It is why Christ himself would identify as blessed those who are located amongst the least, the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the gentle and merciful, peacemakers and justice seekers. Here are the characteristics of those who live in hope and trust, giving from what they have received, and not grasping for more.

It would not be out of place to characterise Kevin Andrews’ life in terms of one who sought to live his life in reasoned hope and realistic joy. This last year or so of his life, as he grappled with the cancer that took him, is a particular, though certainly not solely, a testimony of this. Entirely unexpected as it was, and determinative as it was, Kevin took this trial in faith, not really slowing up nor giving up, but realistically living what time he had left according to the three great markers of his life:

a man of deep faith, which guided his worldview and commitmentsa man of faithful marriage and family, which, with Margie, was a witness for othersand a man of great public service, in the community and across the nation.

Hope in the resurrection of our lives, into which Jesus was the first-born, is the hope to which we can look. It is founded in the faithfulness and trust that Christ had in his Father, and by which his own life was lived. As St Peter also said,

Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who in his great mercy had given us a new birth as his sons and daughters ...

As you, Margie, and the family, come to grips with the grief of Kevin’s death, the signs of his resurrection become for us that sure hope and promise of an inheritance that is being kept for each of us in God’s kingdom.

No one has everything there is to have to make their life successful, even though it is the measure that has somehow come to dominate in society. Rather, each of us is gifted with what is needed. Not everything, but something; each has a little to give. As St Paul said, “our gifts differ according to the grace given us.” The task set for each is the task to take what we have been given and live it fruitfully. To give, then, what we have been given, is the pathway to a well-lived life.

As we remember Kevin’s life, and commend him to God, we would do well to attend to this. Our destiny is not to achieve greatness, success, but to live faithfully and fruitfully with what we have been given. The extent to which we might say this of Kevin – having lived a faithful life with the gifts given to him – is the extent to which he might be for us a witness to a hope that will not disappoint. To quote the great St John Henry Newman,

God has created me to do Him some definite service. He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another … He has not created me for naught.

Let us pray that Kevin now knows eternally that, indeed, he had not been created for the nothingness of success, but, to use an analogy Kevin might appreciate, he has rode the race of his life in faith, fidelity and service. May eternal light now shine upon him. May he rest in peace, and rise to glory.

A recording of the funeral can be viewed here.