Laying Archbishop John Myers to rest

 

Archbishop John Joseph Myers, bishop of the Diocese of Peoria from 1987 to 2001, died on September 24, 2020.


Archbishop Myers was the 7th bishop of the Diocese of Peoria. In 2001, he was selected by Pope St. John Paul II to be the Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Newark, New Jersey. He had retired as Archbishop and returned to central Illinois in failing health, to be close to his family.


The funeral wasn't open to the public, but the burial service at St. Mary's Cemetery was. A couple other people had the same idea that I did, to go to the cemetery, including Dr. Rob Prescott, one of my English professors at Bradley University and a friend of the Archbishop.



The priests who served as Bishop Myers' assistants when he was in Peoria, were the pallbearers. It was not merely a ceremonial role as the bronze casket weighed over 400 pounds. 


Matt Salmon, of Wright & Salmon Mortuary, helped guide the service.


The current Bishop of Peoria, Daniel Jenky, is seated as he prepares to begin the burial service. His brother Coadjutor Bishop of Peoria, Louis Tylka is standing in the black cassock and the purple zucchetto (I had to look that word up; it's the beanie).


Bishop Jenky blesses the casket.


I spend a lot of time in St. Mary's Cemetery. It's not far from where I live. I walk and jog in the cemetery. I ask the people who are buried there to pray for my intentions. As I get older, I know more and more people who have been laid to rest at St. Mary's. In 2018, my brother Jim died. He was a priest of the Diocese of Peoria, ordained by Bishop Myers on May 23, 1992. You can see his headstone between the two priests in the black cassocks.


It might seem morbid to spend so much time in a cemetery, but I find it peaceful and uplifting. Along those lines, I'm going to quote from the introduction to Archbishop Myers' funeral homily, given by Msgr. Steven Rohlfs, the vicar general when Bishop Myers was in Peoria.

When Sir Winston Churchill died in 1965 his state funeral, which took place in St. Paul's Cathedral in London, was broadcast all over the world. Churchill had meticulously planned the symbolic elements of his funeral to speak to all those who would attend it in person, via radio or television. He wanted to make sure that the hundreds of millions of people somehow present would receive one last message from him as he departed this world.

Perhaps the most poignant part of the funeral came at the very end. After the final prayer and before the coffin was carried out of the church for the last time, the Archbishop of Canterbury called for a moment of silence. After about 30 seconds, two state buglers--high up in the great dome of St. Paul's Cathedral--appeared. The first bugler intoned "The Last Retreat." This was the universal signal used in all the British and Commonwealth encampments around the world that the battles of the day were over--the men could now rest and sleep.

But then, just as Churchill had instructed, as soon as "The Last Retreat" was finished, another bugler, also in the great dome, immediately intoned the notes of "Reveille!"--the universal signal to get up, the day is at hand! This was Churchill's final symbolic words to the congregation. As a Christian, he believed in the Resurrection and eternal life. He knew that the worst things are never the last things and the eternal day always follows the night of death.



Archbishop Myers was the oldest of the seven siblings and the first to die. Above, his three sisters and three brothers, surround the casket and give him a final send off by singing, "When Irish Eyes are Smiling."

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