if I might just say a few words on this on this occasion where we gather with families to say goodbye to sue people that we love very much the first thing I want to say to all of you is that I know that you've traveled many different places to come here yeah and I know not everyone here is Catholic I just I just know others might be of other faiths here I just want you to know that you honor us today by your very presence because your very presence along with all the others in the church are a great comfort to gee and to Jane and to Meredith and to Madeline to Caitlyn and to Kristen if you could turn around I wouldn't ask you to do but if you could turn around there is an unspoken homy or message being given today that is more ele quent than anything I can say to any of you by the overwhelming presence an overwhelming number of people here today they're sending a message to you loud and clear that John and Matthew's lives mattered that they were noticed on this Earth they were loved on this Earth and they were valued on this Earth and this robust crowd wants you to know that they're here to tell you all of you that they love you too and they have your back and they're here to support you in your loss we heard today readings the wisdom reading says you're in the palm of God's hand with God's mercy and Grace he gives to the elect and then we heard from Philippians and Philippians says our true citizenship Matthews and John's is heaven all of us simply have a Visa on this Earth we don't have a passport we're here for a short time sometimes too short a time but the gospel today Jesus is trying I prayed over the gospel over and over since Wednesday and I keep hearing over and over for words I Think Jesus is wanting to tell all of us the same four words I am the way yeah I think there's a promise in those words and the promise is this if you follow me on the way you will be ultimately in the last moment okay you know all of us here today are having a hard time believing that we should not as the gospel said be burdened by our loss today because God has them in God's hands though that is true there's not a person in this church today all of you who don't feel a burden a pain a loss we've been robbed of something here today two really wonderful young men who had dreams yet to chase down who had Futures yet to live who had goals and accomplishments yet to be achieved how can we not feel bad today but we're also asked not only to lean on the crowd here today for support we're asked to lean on Jesus Christ for support and if Jesus says I am the way to eternal life we should believe that today we should hold on to that today for Jesus in his lifetime has kind of marked the way it's like this aisle those benches Mark the aisle well Jesus has marked the way well it's like an airplane coming down at night to a Runway that has the lights on each side of the runway it's clear where the runway is Jesus wants all of us today to know this those who walk the the way of Jesus will come to the stairway of Heaven they will and what is the way of the Lord is simply follow Jesus's example and what did Jesus do over and over and over again in different ways he loved and anyone who knows these two young men know that they have been loved and that they loved and they have not only been loved by Mom and Dad and sisters but by wives who deeply love them and by people in New Jersey in Boston in Pennsylvania in Calgary and in Columbus and I found out about Johnny and Matthew's death by someone who called me from Taiwan there are people all over the world who know that these two young men are special and what makes me confident today in my my words is that these people these two young men went to the right schools you know I'm not talking about Gloucester Catholic High School even though that that was an important place for them in their early life and I'm not even talking about my school Boston College which ter Terri terribly misses these young men because when they were on our campus they lit up our campus not only on the ice but on the campus in the classroom they were wonderful but the truth of it is they went to the right School it it's not Gloucester Catholic High School and it's not BC they went to the school of the good school that's true they had the best teachers they had the best professors G and Jane because they taught their kids how to love they taught them how to love not only John and Matthew but Katie and Christen as well in the baptism ceremony says the parents are the first and best teachers of their their kids in the way of faith and also life and you have taught them to love and when you taught them to love you taught them how to recognize the way that Jesus is talking about well done but that's not the only school they went to graduate school too they met uh Meredith and mine and the two of you their wives you figured out a way to make them even better at loving you drew stuff out of Matthew and you drew stuff out of John that they didn't even know they had in them you made them better lovers but anyone in this church who knew them and was a good friends I'm thinking of many of you that I know who are great friends of them you help them be better too the people in Calgary and Columbus the people in New Jersey in Boston everybody had a hand to inspire these young men to be more loving in their life and they were I'll tell you a little story now my story is this Johnny was a freshman at Boston College Matthew was playing hockey I think out in Midwest and he came to visit his brother one weekend and on the visit they had a great time they went to the games and all that good stuff but on the day Matthew was going to be driven by one of the coaches into the airport to go back to the Midwest uh I noticed the car out in front of the dining room and I noticed Matthew who I just met that weekend was sitting in the front seat and his brother John had come out of one of the buildings to talk to him so I thought it'd be a good time for me to go and say goodbye to Matthew who I had met and as I approached the window I kind of thought they were talking they weren't talking they were talking but they weren't talking like I thought this is what they were doing I love you I love you they were doing in this tennis match I love you no I love you I love you no I love you they must have said it 19 times and I'm sitting there go oh what's going on here I love you and I love you I don't want to go okay stay with me no I have to go okay go it that was the conversation but I saw in those two brothers a love that I don't have with my own brothers and I love my brothers but they had an intensity to their love that was unbelievable and I'm sure it's and Caitlyn and Kristen too because they had the best teachers in the world you're to be complimented and then they even became better at love when they met Meredith and meline and they found new ways to express their love and their expression has resulted in Noah and John and trip gifts to this earth that will be forever the legacy of your two wonderful husbands and your love between them and that leaves all of us what are we going to do I know we showed up today and you're to be complimented for that it's a tremendous source of comfort for the family but what are we going to do now how are we going to leave this church and somehow add on to the legacy of these two young men who have done their thing how are we going to honor them in our own own lives I for one am going to be a better brother to my sister and my F four brothers I'm going to work harder I saw what real brothers how real brothers love looked like my I'm not quite there yet so I'm going to try to honor them by being a better friend and a better brother how about you what are you going to do maybe we can learn from this that we're not guaranteed long lives so maybe we should live our lives with more urgency we saw what real love looked like maybe in our own families we should find a way to be more loving life is very fragile these are two healthy young men who would have expected them to go down like they did but they did maybe we should understand how fragile life is and make better judgments in our own life and maybe we should try to be more protective of those people in our life that sometimes need protection and the last thing I would like to say is that for all you young people out there and for those who are not so young for those who are having families having kids of your own or about to have children maybe we can start the grro schools across the this country maybe you should try hard in your own life to create a very loving home so that when you're kid grows up they're kind of like Maddie and John good kids who know how to love but they don't learn how to love just by going to church that helps they need inspiration and guidance and so for all you young people all you teachers all you grandparents let's be better at loving our own kids so that they might grow up to be the kind of people we celebrate here today and lastly if we do that well all those kinds of things we will be standing on the way we will find our own paths to the kingdom of God to the stairway of heaven and don't be surprised as we walk up that stairwell that among the first people to welcome us to heaven will be John and Matthew and wouldn't that be nice and wouldn't our world be better because we were inspired today by their lives anyways that's the best I have so I'm going to stop right there and ask you to please stand for our intercessions h