For those who walk by faith and not by sight, our human dignity establishes itself on this simple credo: “We are made in the image and likeness of God!”  Herein lies the root of our call to reverence ourselves and to reverence each other!  To the Bendernagel family, especially, Lizette and Jerry with us in spirit; to Lolly and Edna here with us along with young Ed who was with Cajetan when he died, and to his cherished friends and, of course, to my Passionist brothers, I wish peace as we take leave of this man who always showed uncommon reverence for all.  May the Peace promised by the One crucified and risen take hold of our hearts as we grieve, rejoice and wonder– laying to rest Edward Bendernagel, known for the past sixty-five years as Cajetan.

We come to grieve our loss of a cherished brother and uncle whose gift for gathering family together made sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews with fiancés and spouses always feel more assured, more confident and more alive in faith.

Many here and many here in spirit who were long associated with our the Passionists in Brighton, Mass, in North Palm Beach, West Hartford and many years ago in Pittsburgh, grieve the loss of a trusted counselor who could listen as few today seem able or willing t listen.  More recent and more immediate, many at Hartford Hospital Dialysis Treatment Center grieve the loss of one who made them feel significant and hopeful!

We Passionists are grieving the loss of a brother whose commitment and skill in keeping alive the Memory of the Passion gave us an inner strength and a common pride.  Could we not hear Cajetan claiming a personal ownership with the indomitable and resolute Job: “Would that my words were written with an iron chisel, and were cut in the rock forever!  I know that my Redeemer lives and that he will at last stand forth upon the dust and from my flesh I myself shall see God; my inmost being consumed with longing.”

We come to grieve, but don’t we also come to rejoice?  We rejoice, yes in the glory to be revealed in Cajetan!  But just as truly don’t we come rejoicing in what the Lord has done with Edward Bendernagel, with Cajetan!  Don’t we rejoice in how this good and faithful servant embraced and was embraced by his Passionist vocation?

I would like to share with the laity gathered with us Passionists this morning, some words from our Passionist Constitutions.  Chapter One, The Fundamentals of our life, Para. #8 reads: Together we undertake the arduous journey of faith, seeking to explore the depths of the mystery God!  Together we share the same hope: that we shall contact in our lives the living God who draws us to himself.

Should we not rejoice that Edward Bendernagel embraced the Passionist journey of faith?  Should we not rejoice that Cajetan in truth and in such a vital way, contacted the living God and was able to help to draw the rest of us to our waiting God!  I believe that Cajetan’s contract with the living God was the source of his remarkable sense of reverence.  Even with us young fellows in the novitiate he conveyed that sense of reverence.  His role was to form us with the proper attitude and behavior for moving forward in the Passionist life.  Even in corrections, he always conved his attitude of reverence for us.

We grieve.  We rejoice.  And I believe we are graced on this occasion also to wonder.  We are graced today to wonder at the mystery that God has unfolded in our Fr. Cajetan and at the mystery that God will continue to unfold as we continue to remember “Caj” living in the Lord Jesus now in glory.

For me there has always been a Gospel virtue that I admired in Cajetan.  Today, however, I want to move from admiration to wonder.   I marvel and wonder at this particular Gospel mystery Jesus has revealed to us in Cajetan.  In the late spring or early summer, 1977, I attended at St. St. Gabriel’s.  Leaving the Mass, Fr Flavian Doughterty, our Provincial Superior at the time, sided up to me and remarked, “Lucian, look around!  Do you see who are here?  Here are the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind!”  Indeed, such were the guests invited to Cajetan’s Jubilee Banquet.

Many of us have admired but how many have lived that Gospel exhortation about inviting guests to your banquet?  Jesus was invited to the house of a wealthy Pharisee.  It was on that occasion that he gave us that homey wisdom about taking the lower place to then be invited to the higher place.  After this suggestion, however, Jesus gave a more radical directive: “When you hold a dinner, do not invite your family, or your relatives or your wealthy neighbors, in case they might invite you back and you have repayment.  Rather, when you hold a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind.  Blessed indeed will you be because of their inability to repay you!”

I would like to make another reference to that First Chapter of our Passionist Constitutions where we read: “We are aware that the Passion of Christ continues in this world therefore we share in the joys and sorrows of our contemporaries as we journey through life to the Father.  We wish to share in the distress of all, especially those who are poor and neglected: we seek to offer them comfort and to relieve the burden of their sorrow.”

I believe Cajetan had integrated beautifully this dictate of our Passionist Rule.  Today as the Lord declares those welcome words: “Come, Edward, Cajetan, blessed of my Father; enter in to enjoy the kingdom prepared for you!”  I suggest that the Lord may add: “They’re all waiting for you: Mom and Dad, your brothers and sisters. Oh yes, there’s a whole crowd who have been waiting.  They know you’re coming and can’t wait to see you.  They once were hungry and thirsty, lonely and strangers, sick and in prison.  They remember you well, how you fed them and gave them drink, welcomed, cared for and visited them.

We gather here at this table of our Eucharistic Banquet.  It is our treasured Sacrament for grieving, for rejoicing and, yes, for wondering at God’s master design.  This Plan the Father centered in his Incarnate Son, sent not to condemn us but to save us!  This banquet table is where we keep sacred the Memory and the Promise: Christ has died, Christ is risen and He will come again– sending within us and among us the Spirit of truth.  We give thanks for allowing us to be the part of the Plan and Design that included Edward Bendernagel, Fr. Cajetan.  May he rest in the fullness and delight of God’s eternal peace!

- Lucian Clark, C.P.

Donations can be made in Father Cajetan Bendernagel’s memory to the Passionist Retirement Fund, 526 Monastery Pl, Union City, N.J.

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