Each of you has, with you, a beautiful worship aid for this celebration of life. And I'd ask you to look at the cover, and at the photograph of Julia, as I read words from one of the great contemporary spiritual leaders, Jean Vanier. "My heart is transformed by the smile of trust given by some people who are terribly fragile and weak. They call forth new energies from me. They seem to break down barriers, and so to bring me, a new freedom. It is the same with the smile of a child. Contact with people who are weak, and who are crying out for communion, is one of the most important nourishments in our lives. When we let ourselves be really touched by the gift of their presence, they leave something precious in our hearts."

The beautiful readings we have today were chosen by Bob and Mary. In a sense, they are so beautiful, one could simply dwell upon them in silence. But this rite calls for a breaking open of the Word, for our efforts to understand more deeply, enter into the mystery of Christ in those words, and to share ways in which we might let the Good News become realized in our lives. A homily on this occasion is not a directive to be a eulogy, and this one is not. But every once in a rare while, there is a life that is in and of itself, a homily. A life that is so much the presence of the Good News of God. A life that is so much the meaning of the Word of God made real, and given to us as a sign and an inspiration of how we are to let the Good News give us life in our daily life. Such is Julia's life.

Christ says in His gospel of John: " I am the Way and the Truth and the Life," and that you must come through Me. We will hear, a number of times in this liturgy, we will be reminded, that Julia, baptized into Christ, is one in Him. That means she has been baptized through Christ, to be prophet, priest and king. And her life has been a life that has realized these gifts. But I would like to speak about the prophetic dimension of the life we celebrate.

If we accept, truly accept what Jesus told us, that He is the Life, the Way and the Truth, then we have to accept the fact, that Jesus Himself was a very, as it were, disabled disfigurement of God. Strange? True. To have the God of all possibility, all wonder and beauty, take on human form is literally in Jesus, a God who allowed Himself to be disabled in obedience. And if we are to go to God through the Lord Jesus, we go through the Lord Jesus's brokenness as well as through His Resurrection. That the Way, the Truth, and the Life can only come to us by the path from brokenness to wholeness in our resurrected life. Julia can say that to us, too. And we can ask, what does Christ, in and through the life of Julia, reveal to us?

In terms of truth, Paul reminds us about ourselves and how God has chosen and continues to choose those whom the world disregards, for various forms of brokenness and disabilities. The truth, that Christ in Julia reveals to us, is that we have to begin by honesty to ourselves, about ourselves. And that we are utterly and completely dependent upon our Good God. And the very strong truth, that to be born without some abilities, has nothing to do with being born without generous and gracious gifts. It does not mean to be without gifts, without grace, without mission, purpose and inestimable value.

And what does Christ, through the life of Julia, reveal to us about the Way? In Isaiah, we hear that there is a way for all of us and uniquely for each of us. That what the world considers weakness, disguises our great strength. Yes, some of those words in the prophecy of Isaiah, weakness of our hands, the trembling of our knees, describes Julia. But it describes us all. That the Way is the way of courage. Julia is a gift of courage, because, not one person here, even her family, can know exactly, the courage she had. And the strength and the will and the determination. The Church, in its teaching, in trying to make us a more whole community, wrote a document on persons with disabilities - in terms of the worlds view of disabilities. And they said, the Bishops of our country, that out of their experience, they forge virtues like courage, patience, perserverence, compassion and sensitivity, that should serve as an inspiration for this Church. And what we learn about the Way through Julia and through the revelation of God's Good News, is that power in the way the world sees it is an illusion, and that those who seek power are the most disillusioned on the surface of the world. And that the Way can only be ours if we are willing to be absolutely dependent upon God and give ourselves totally into His care as He manifests it through the community of His people.

If any of you have had the privilege of sharing a meal with the Wassmann family, you know that Julia is always at the table, and she is always in someone's lap. And it's not just at the table, it's always, and by each member - Emma didn't quite reach that stage in time - but everyone else did. And we are told in the psalms that , " like a child upon its mother lap, so I place my soul in you my Lord". That our way must be a way of willingness to be helpless in the arms of a loving God.

What does Christ reveal to us through the life of Julia about life itself? That what is truly essential, is being one hundred percent of who you are. And at this, Julia excelled. And that life cannot be lived, if it is lived in the shadow of the fear of dying.

In the Gospel of Matthew, we have Jesus saying;" What you receive as a gift, give as a gift." Julia did this. Julia does this, because she is part of the communion of saints who intercedes, and prays and is present for us. But Bob, Mary, Bern,and Jen, and Andy and Emma learned a lot from these gifts of Julia. They were the first to receive the gifts and receiving the gift that Julia was, they gave and have given the gift to us - and to all who would come to the waters to drink deeply of life's deepest meaning.

When Julia received her First Communion, when she broke the Bread of the Lord with us, and if some of you were here to remember that day and her Confirmation, then you perhaps like me, am convinced that the Holy Spirit descended not only upon Julia, but upon this Eucharistic community of Holy Redeemer and released the power of Julia's gifts in an even more profound and widespread way. And one only has to listen to the conversations that I have listened to yesterday and before, over the past four years, to know how deeply that gift and that charism was received by people in this community. And that's only those who are aware of what they have received. The rest have a gift to be unwrapped.

Her essential gift though is the power to call from us the gifts we never knew we had. To bring together people who would not have formed community in ever the same way without her. And to be for us a very real and a very essential face of God. And to invite each and every one of us, individually, and as a Eucharistic community to accept our own brokenness and the transformation that does come.

Bob and Mary made it very clear to me, in their very gentle way, but clear, that this was to be a celebration of life - and it is. Because what makes a celebration is gratitude and we are gathered in gratitude. But, gift and gratitude require responsibility and one cannot have celebration without a mission. Last night I prayed deeply about the words necessary for today, and I asked Julia, who now has, through God, I think, an ability to communicate what she might have said. And I'm going out way on a limb, because, I was much more known I think by Julia then knew her, but I think she would say; "What will we individually and as a community do to make the gift and the graces of the Lord, given through her life and death, a living legacy for ourselves and for this community. What will we do to insure that the seeds of grace planted in us through her, come to blossom and bear fruit?" And I think she would ask of us this, for Julia and her family have shown us how the unimaginable can become imaginable, a vision, and a plan that is actualized and made real.

So what about the rest of us? What will we do for the Julias without such a family and without such a community as this? Without the acceptance, and only the rejection, because they do not fit the vision of a sightless world. What will we do because of Julia, for those gifts of theirs that are stillborn because the hearts that surround them are barren of acceptance, compassion and their own desperate hunger for the grace of God given through all of His children? That question is ours. And if we are going to celebrate this life truthfully, then we thank God for the privilege of this challenge. "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life", may we, in the faith of this Eucharist, know this more deeply, more honestly and more compassionately than we have ever known it before.