Eunice Kennedy Shriver
(1921-2009)
“The Queen of Humanity”

August 30, 2009, Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-8 James 1:17-18, 21-22, 27 Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

To the churched and unchurched[1]
gathered in a church not built by human hands[2]

Second reading from James

Vs 17-18: Dearest brothers and sisters, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming from the Father of heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. It was a happy day for Him when He gave us our new lives through the truth of his word, and we became, as it were, the first children in his new family.

Vs 21-22: Therefore, rid yourselves of all moral filth and wicked conduct. Submit to God and accept the word that He has planted in your hearts, which can save you. Do not fool yourselves by just listening to his word. Instead, put it into practice.
Vs 27: Religion that is pure and stainless before God our Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself uncorrupted by the world.

The word of the Lord
Thanks be to God

Alleluia, alleluia.
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Mark

Glory to you, Lord.

When the Pharisees with some scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with unwashed hands -- that is, they had not washed them in the manner the Pharisees said people should. For the Pharisees and, in fact, all Jews do not eat unless they wash their hands in the proper manner, nor do they eat anything from the market unless they wash it first. And there are many other rules they traditionally observe, such as, the purification of cups, jugs, kettles and beds. So the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, “Why is it that your disciples do not follow the tradition of the elders but instead eat a meal with unclean hands?” Jesus replied, “You bunch of hypocrites! Isaiah the prophet described you very well when he said, `These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. In vain do they worship me, as they claim that God commands the people to obey their petty rules.’ How right Isaiah was!”

Then Jesus summoned the crowd again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand. It’s not what comes from without that makes a person unclean but what comes from within. -From within -- from people’s hearts -- come evil thoughts, impurity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within a person and make him unclean.”

The Gospel of the Lord.
Praise to you, Lord Jesus Christ.

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Introduction
A long list

Some Pharisees and scribes in Jesus’ day had a long list of what makes a person unclean in God’s eyes. One became unclean by contracting leprosy or by touching lepers.(Lv. chap. 13; Mk 1:41). One became unclean by speaking to a Samaritan (a heretic) and to a woman in public. (Jn 4:9) One became unclean by dining with tax collectors and sinners in their homes.(Mk 2:16) One became unclean by visiting the marketplace, and then sitting down to eat without first diligently washing one’s hands. (Mk 7:3)

Jesus put the people straight: “Hear me, all of you, and understand. It’s not what comes from without that makes a person unclean but what comes from within. From within -- from people’s hearts -- come evil thoughts, impurity, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, licentiousness, envy, blasphemy, arrogance, folly. All these evils come from within and make a person unclean.” (Mk 7:21-23)

Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009)

But this, too, is true: it’s also what comes from within that makes a person clean. For within a person the “Spirit produces love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, and self-control.” (Gal 5:22) All these were found in a remarkable degree in Eunice Kennedy Shriver, the daughter of Joseph Patrick Kennedy and Rose Elizabeth Kennedy.

Joe and Rose Kennedy had nine children. Their second child John Fitzgerald Kennedy, born May 29, 1917, became 35th U.S. president and was assassinated on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas. Their third child was Rose Marie Kennedy (1918 –2005). She was a mentally challenged child and underwent a lobotomy procedure at the age of 23 to cure her condition. The procedure was a failure and left her fundamentally incapacitated for the rest of her life. Rose Marie was institutionalized at the St. Coletta School in Jefferson, Wis., 1949. There she remained until her death in 2005.

Their fifth child was Eunice Mary Kennedy, born July 10, 1921. She married Robert Sargent Shriver Jr. on May 23, 1953. Among their five children (four of them boys) is TV journalist Maria Shriver. Eunice died Tuesday, August 11, 2009 at the age of 88.Never forgetting she was the sister of a mentally challenged human being Eunice became the founder of the Special Olympics. In four decades it grew to encompass 3 million athletes in 181 countries. But her work to advance social and living conditions for people with disabilities was more multifaceted than mere athletics.

Her wake and funeral Mass

At her public wake held at Our Lady of Victory church on Thursday, August 13, in Centerville, Massachusetts, throngs of mourners paid their respect to Eunice for dedicating her life to dispelling misconceptions about the mentally challenged and elevating them, in Eunice’s words, “into the sunlight of useful living.’’ The crowd at the six-hour wake surpassed 1,000 admirers.
The Mass of Christian burial was held the next day in St. Francis Xavier Church –a 100-year-old white-columned church on Cape Cod -- the place where the Kennedy family has come to worship, celebrate, and grieve over the years. Eunice’s children (including Maria Shriver and her husband, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger), carried the casket into the family church. The sidewalks of South Street were lined with media and those seeking to get a glimpse of a piece of Kennedy history. Mourners in the wooden pews at the invitation-only funeral included Vice President Joe Biden, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, Oprah Winfrey, Stevie Wonder, and scores of other luminaries. Eunice’s brother Sen. Edward M. Kennedy who is battling brain cancer did not attend.

Before the Mass, a lone bagpiper led a slow procession of police and “special Olympians.” At the beginning of the Mass, Loretta Clairborne, a “special Olympian” and a close friend of Eunice said,

“The weakest of the weak, the castaways, the throwaways of society -- at the time, they would say `the mentally retarded.’ And I am one of those people. They say the king of pop is gone. I say the queen of humanity is gone.”

After Clairborne's moving introduction, a recording of Eunice’s voice filled the sanctuary with the famous words she spoke in that familiar Kennedy accent at the 1987 Special Olympics at the University of Notre Dame,

The right to play on any playing field? You have earned it.
The right to study in any school? You have earned it.
The right to hold a job? You have earned it.
The right to be anyone's neighbor? You have earned it.

A daughter’s eulogy

In his homily Fr. Richard Fragomeni said, “She walked with God until this last Tuesday, Aug. 11. Eunice and God took a very long walk that night and God said to Eunice, ‘You are closer to my house now than to your house by the sea. Well done, good and faithful servant.’” In her eulogy, Maria Shriver recalled that “my mother would come to pick us all up at school in her blue Lincoln convertible, her hair would be flying in the wind, there usually would be some pencils or pens in it. The car would be filled with all these boys and their friends and their animals, she’d have on a cashmere sweater with little notes pinned to it to remind her of what she needed to do when she got home. And more often than not, the sweater would be covering a bathing suit, so she could lose no time jumping into the pool to beat us all in a water polo game." Shriver even said her mother Eunice “wore men's pants, smoked Cuban cigars, played tackle football and was a maternal feminist who refused to be anything but herself. " Her mother’s heroes, she said, were the Virgin Mary, Mother Teresa, Dorothy Day, her own mother and her sister Rose Marie. Shriver ended her eulogy by reading a poem she wrote in a Boston hospital.

The clouds are gone.
The sky is clear and you are the star of my sky.
You are the music of my heart.
You are the trumpet of my life.

That was met with a standing ovation and a rousing version of “When the Saints Go Marching In.”

A son’s tribute

One of Eunice’s sons, Timothy (born in 1959), a B.A., M.A., Ph.D., wrote in 2008 when his mother was already ailing,

When I was a child, May was Mary’s month. My mother demanded that we children convene after dinner and say the rosary every night. We complained, cut corners, giggled, and misbehaved. But for the most part, we did it. How could I have known that 40 years later, I would be saying the same rosary with my mother as she lays in bed at 86, struggling for health. Some days, speech is difficult for her and walking impossible. Some days, it’s all she can do to raise her head. But even on those days, the words of the rosary come easily. “Do you want to lead Mom?” “Yes. Hail Mary, full of Grace, the Lord is with thee…”

But I can hardly begin to capture how much meaning and purpose my mother’s devotion to Mary has given me. The rosary was my first exposure to the power of repetitive prayer and led me to study the meditative practices of all religions where mantra and repetition form a pathway to silence and peace. Those beads in my fingers still create an almost biological reaction: “Calm down!” they seem to call out no matter the moment. “Move to your center! Be still!”
Mary was everywhere in my house as a child and also set the tone for a resolute belief in the importance of women. My mother pushed and pushed for women in politics, in science, in religion, in advocacy. I find myself over and over again asking if there is a female perspective on a problem that I’m missing, a women’s role that is being overlooked.

Conclusion
The queen of humanity

In the second reading today St. James writes, “Religion that is pure and stainless according to God our Father is this: to take care of orphans and widows who are suffering, and to keep oneself uncorrupted by the world.” (James 1:27) Eunice’s religion was pure and stainless. Though she was a member of a very influential and wealthy family, her religion inspired her to keep herself uncorrupted by this world. Jesus says, “Blessed are [the rich who are] poor in spirit, the kingdom of God is theirs.” Her religion also inspired Eunice to take care of orphans – especially the mentally challenged who were often orphaned by society. And that’s what inspired a “special Olympian” to declare, “They say the king of pop is gone. I say the queen of humanity is gone.”

[1] By the “the unchurched” is especially meant not those who have left the church but those whom the church has left!

[2] Acts of the Apostles 17:24