Bishop Donald DeGrood, Diocese of Sioux Falls
Homily from the Vigil Service for Bishop Peter Muhich
February 25, 2024
We are so very blessed in our Catholic faith to have the funeral liturgies that prepare us for the reality of what it is we celebrate. Tonight, we gather for the Vigil, which is a time for us to pray intently for our beloved brother, Bishop Peter. That God will look upon him with great mercy and bring him to the great rewards of eternal life. It is to be a time of vigilance, to be alert and awake. Alert and awake to the readings and what God wants to speak to us in our hearts.
The beautiful privilege of a homily during a visual service is to preach on the readings and so I offer us words of encouragement tonight that as we heard in our First Reading, we are to be courageous. At times it’s really hard to be courageous. To be filled with fortitude to fight through that which is difficult. Those of you who have come to know, and all of us who have come to know and to love Bishop Peter — especially his family and those who are so close to him, those who worked so closely with him and those of you who he served, both here and in his home Diocese of Duluth.
It can create this internal sense like there’s something wrong. What did God do? Why did He do it? He was such a young bishop. We desired so many things for him to be and for him, knowing him as a brother bishop in South Dakota, he had such a shepherd’s heart and he invested himself so much right here as he called upon the Servant of God Black Elk. He will be buried in the very ground of this diocese yet only being here less than four years.
He gave his heart to Christ, and wherever Christ wanted him and whatever that difficulty would be in his life, we thank God for his “yes.” It’s important when we hear the words to be courageous, in a particular way to be courageous in the virtue of hope, remembering that we grieve without hope. We grieve because of what we have lost, and it is healthy to grieve. But always to grieve with hope. Hope in the resurrection because he is a believer, and we have every reason to look forward to being with him in heaven. But we must pray and as we heard in our Gospel, we must be vigilant always.
Perhaps like you I was not prepared to come back less than four years after he had just been ordained and for us to gather again as the people of God, as the clergy, as the consecrated, to pray again for him. We prayed first of all that he would be the bishop that God wants him to be, and we thank God for the bishop that he was for us — especially you who are blessed to have him here.
But in that time when we find sadness and grief setting in, it’s good for us to remember and to call upon the Lord, “Lord give me the gift of hope. Remind me that I have every reason to grieve with the joyful spirit because of the power of Christ in the resurrection.” Not just Jesus’ resurrection but our resurrection and so we gather tonight as we prepare for tomorrow for his Funeral Mass, where we will again gather praying and asking God for the forgiveness of any of his sins and to give all of us the grace in the consolation of hope.
My brothers and sisters, we have every reason to be filled with hope, despite the unexpected and early death of our beloved brother. As we heard in the Gospel, we must be always ready because we know not the day nor the hour but if we are always ready it matters not when the day or the hour comes.
