Sunday Mass in the Chapel of Saint Mary's College, Oscott,
following the Reception of
Giles Canon Goward’s Mortal Remains,
homily preached by Father Paul Keane, Vice-Rector.
7th February 2021
AMDG
Canon Giles Goward became the Rector of Oscott on 28 June 2020. He died on 28 January 2021. Seven months exactly. His time in office was brief but not his influence – it will continue. Fr Giles’ faith and cheerfulness in illness and dying were equal in their power to years of house talks and scrutiny reports. We can live and die better because of his example.
Sutton Coldfield has never been at the centre of world or national events but our chapel is not obscure. It is, as Cardinal Nicols once said, ‘the beating heart of the Church in England.’ Not only because many of the Oxford Movement, including Newman, were confirmed here; and not even because the founding charters of the Church in our land were drawn up here during the three Synods of Westminster. Our chapel gives life to the Church by the men who have prayed and been formed in prayer within its walls. From this chapel generations of priests have been born and sent out in mission. And, as Fr Giles was on the Formation Staff for seven and a half years that this chapel has stood, so under his care as Pastoral Director and then Rector, thirteen separate Year Groups have been nurtured for priestly service. His priesthood lives in theirs and will live in ours as much as we trust that Fr Giles, by God’s mercy, lives in heaven.
In the photocopier room, the Staff can leave letters for postage. Fr Giles would leave his in quite a deliberate manner; one in which he knew some of us delighted. His daily correspondence was never left with an envelope on top addressed to a bank or utility company. No, his top envelope was always addressed to someone who was at least above the rank of a baronet, sometimes rising to a continental princess of a not forgotten duchy. The titles and names of members of the Order of Malta were a joy to behold as one’s less grand addresses were added to the pile of letters. Fr Giles delighted in the history of the Order. He was not inured to the charm of its pomp. Yet, it was its work of service to the sick and the poor which had drawn him; work which he supported for many years. Fr Giles had a heart for those who could be overlooked. In our community, he was quick to speak out behind the scenes in support of seminarians who were not born in this country but had come here to serve. He honoured their sacrifice. And, of course, as we all know, he fought for the rights of him who can be most under-appreciated: the permanent deacon. In these men, supported by their wives, he recognised Christ the servant. Fr Giles was quick to quip and celebrated generosity whenever he saw it.
As we gather around the catafalque which bears our rector’s body, today’s words of Job are too marvelously apt: ‘Swifter than a weaver’s shuttle my days have passed, and vanished.’ Fr Giles was only fifty-four years old. He had just begun his new responsibilities. His death is a tragedy. To our eyes he has vanished. These ceremonies, which are so right and beautiful, only heighten his absence; on such a day of significance for the College, Fr Giles should be here, presiding. Job’s final words are a prayer to his Creator: ‘Remember that my life is but a breath, and that my eyes will never again see joy.’ Why did the Church choose this passage for this Sunday, one which reflects so well grief? Because the Gospel of Mark presents today God’s answer to that prayer: Jesus. Jesus heals the sick and frees the possessed; he gives life again. Our lives are no longer a mere breath but, because of our Saviour, ones of lung-expanding eternity. We shall see joy forever. And so, the Psalmist sang: ‘Praise the Lord who heals the broken-hearted.’
And yet we grieve for ourselves because we miss the rector. He was the Father of this House and there is nothing more solemn than the funeral of a parent. Yet Newman said, when he preached in this chapel at the funeral of Mgr Weedall, the first Rector of New Oscott:
‘Everyone is made for his day; he does his work inhis day: what he does is not the work of any other day, but of his own day; his work is necessary in order to the work of that next day which is nothis, as a stepping-stone on which we, who come next, are to raise our own work. God grant that we too may do our own work, whatever it may be, as perfectly as he did his, whom we are now consigning to the grave.’
The stepping-stone which Fr Giles has laid down is made-up of priestly service, faithfulness, kindness, and humour. It is upon that stepping-stone which we are to place our feet as a sure foundation for future growth. Yet, paradoxically, the best stepping stones are not hard beneath the foot for, as we heard St Paul say today in his First Letter to the Corinthians: ‘For the weak I made myself weak.’ The good priest - and, however much be hidden from us in anyone’s life, we can confidently say Fr Giles was a good priest – the good priest does not serve from a place of strength but from out of his human frailty, strong in the grace of the Holy Spirit, as he supports others in their frailty. Fr Giles’ stepping stone that he has laid down for us to tread upon, one of priestly service, faithfulness, kindness, and humour, can be our stepping stone because he was no less frail than us - but in his days as rector and in his passing, we saw what grace could do.
There will be a portrait, a grave stone, and a brass in the Weedall. However, there are already two memorials to Canon Goward at Oscott: this living community and a silver Maltese cross that shimmers in the cloister on top of the orb of our Lord, carried by Our Lady of Oscott. If we continue to seek to be the fellowship that the Rector sought for us, and share in his devotion to Mary then, truly, Giles will rest in peace.
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