The first images I have of Kathleen are her leading the way in the Hogmanay party in the parish hall here at the end of December 2018, and her marching the children out of Sunday Mass to the children’s liturgy. They are images which speak to her love of social gatherings and her love of children, hallmarks of who she was throughout her life. In some ways, she and Kenny could be called “Mr & Mrs Parish Hall” and their warmth and welcome were always there for whomever came their way.

When Kenny began to recuperate from his sudden illness in early 2019, I managed a few visits to the house to see them. The stories of their dancing exploits were many and I was left with yet another image of Kathleen literally running the school football team in Kilbirnie, if memory serves me right. They both struck me as people who would do anything for you, and they fed one another’s generosity in joy and laughter.

Kathleen had a strong and grounded faith in God. The proof of it was not just her religious practice but also how that faith translated into generous, joyful and loving action for others of all ages. She used her music and dancing, her matriarchal and organizing skills to build community, to create bonds and to bring joy into people’s lives. If she could be a bit scary sometimes, it was only ever a good scary and given the number of men she had to look after in her life, a good dose of scary was probably just what was needed.

A far more serious form of scary, though, is the very idea that the death of someone like Kathleen could ever mean that all that energy and joy, all that self-sacrifice and leadership might somehow end in destruction, in nothing. That would be scary. But the reality is that it has not ended in nothing. And I say that not just because we might say that those who benefitted from Kathleen’s formidable set of skills and talents will always carry them on in our hearts and memories. While that is true and lovely, it doesn’t begin to touch the deepest truth. The Book of Wisdom tells us clearly that the souls of the righteous are, not merely in our hearts and minds, but in the hand of God. Kathleen’s soul, though it may yet be in need of purification in the eyes of God, is yet firmly in His hands. And the soul in question here is not some spiritual essence. It is the living soul of the selfsame Kathleen containing all of the love she gave in this life. For love literally survives death. If we doubt or deny that, then we are among those whom Wisdom calls “the foolish” for we have been deceived into thinking that Kathleen’s departure was an “evil thing”, a “destruction.” Whereas in reality, “she is with God, she is in peace, her hope is full of immortality, she will receive great good, she will abide with Him in love.”

To say all this is not to comfort ourselves with illusion or make-believe. For this comes from the Word of God, the Word who created Kathleen at the moment of conception so that she would live for ever. The beauty of our human reality is what we experience in this world. But it originates from the world of God, from heaven, and its destiny is that world, too. Our very natural yearning for life and for love without death or separation is the experience of God within us. The food we eat to stay alive in this life is itself dead. It’s a paradox that we eat what is dead to keep living. But the life which that food feeds in us is mortal life. It is a life which will die – unless, that is, there is another kind of food which can feed us with a life which will not die, an immortal life. Jesus Christ has given us that food, as He says: “whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” Kathleen ate and drank the flesh and blood of Christ throughout her life as she came forward in faith to the front of this church to receive Holy Communion. Even as her mortal life decreased, the immortal life of God increased within her. And Holy Communion fed not only her soul but energised her human heart and the virtues and sacrifices of her spirit with the life of God. As Jesus puts it: “As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, also will live because of me.” So, if our mortal life eventually travels down the highway of death, our soul, to use the phrase of the young St. Carlo Acutis, finds in the Eucharist its highway to heaven.

As the Eucharist fed Kathleen’s life of faith, of marriage and family, of school, of parish and of so much more with the deep and abiding certainty of the life of Christ within her, it gave her great courage, good scary courage. She knew her time would come to lay down the tent of her earthly home to receive a house not made with human hands in heaven. And so, with St. Paul in our second reading, she was “always full of courage … so that whether we are at home or away”, in the body or with the Lord, “we make it our aim to please him.” We are not here to canonize Saint Kathleen of Largs, no, but we are here to recognize a wonderful human being who sought, against all the odds, to give 100% of what she had and who she was to the service of God and of all the others God gave her to love and serve in this life. That has to be honoured and treasured as surely as the Lord Himself will honour and treasure the soul of this woman of faith whom he created, redeemed, sanctified and, may it please Him to do so, will glorify in His Kingdom of Light.

One thing is for sure: Kathleen would have a fit if she thought that any of us would spend more than five minutes mourning her. She would turn on the Irish dancing music to full volume and expect everyone to be up on the floor. But I also think, from where she now stands in eternity, she would want all of us to get our act together, not only to recognize with humility and joy the gifts God has given us to use for upbuilding one another, but also and above all to live for and to love the Giver of the Gifts Himself in simplicity and sincerity of faith. My friends, the challenge before us is this: Kathleen, and so many before her, have lived and believed in the God whose eternal peace they now enjoy. Do we really want the same? If the answer is yes, then let us indeed get our act together and get on with living ever more fully a life of faith in Jesus Christ the Lord, our Saviour, our Redeemer and our Everlasting Life.