Fr. Buckley’s Homily at a Memorial Mass for Sam Morson (’24)

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Note: On Tuesday, Rev. Cornelius M. Buckley, S.J., the soon-to-be retired chaplain of Thomas Aquinas College, California, offered the students’ nightly Mass for Sam Morson (’24), who was killed in a car accident over the summer. Below is the text of his homily. Please keep Sam and the Morson family in your prayers.

“The Lord Loves Him Very Much”

By Rev. Cornelius M. Buckley, S.J.
Chaplain
Thomas Aquinas College, California
Homily at the Nightly Mass
August 31, 2021

First of all, this nighttime Mass for students was started some 17 years ago; it was called a “Q&Q Mass” — quick and quiet. And it was deliberately offered in the dark, so that there would be less talk and more time for contemplation, and I think that’s what we should have tonight.

The readings tonight are not any different from the ordinary readings that we have for this day, and yet they are very pertinent as well; namely, Jesus emphasizes the fact that He is certainly with the people, and He is there to cure them and to be with them at all times. That is for us at the present time as well. Secondly, in the first reading, we have, “Encourage one another and build up one another, as indeed you do.” That is to say that He tells us that we should encourage one another and that we should encourage each other to listen to the Lord and to put His words and His actions into practice.

Now this particular Mass we are offering for the repose of the soul of Sam Morson. He was a young man — we’re not going to go into a long eulogy, of course — but he was a young man who certainly put some of these thoughts into practice. And so he was very loyal to the members of his class; he came to Mass very often; he was a prayerful young man — I had some connections with him during the summer — and, of course, the Lord loves him very much.

But that didn’t mean that he wasn’t taken away from us in a special way, and it means, also, that he is certainly with us tonight. And we can pray for him. Whether he’s in Purgatory or Heaven, we know that he prays also for us. So this is a type of encouragement that we should give: encouraging ourselves to pray frequently for the soul of Sam, and asking him also to pray for each and every one of us, because we need that help, as we know very well, to keep a state of grace and to listen to the Lord as He calls to us and asks us to come close to Him to enable us to grow in holiness.

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen.

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