I want to thank David for delivering the excellent family eulogy on Ron. Although he was a very visible figure in Largs, people may not have realised very much about Ron’s very eventful background and most interesting life. From my own point of view, I got to know Ron quite well especially when his beloved wife Betty was still alive. In fact, it was hard to think of the one without the other. They were not just an “item”, as people sometimes say, but deeply bound together in their love for each other and for the Lord. Rediscovering Christ in their mid-life and returning to Him pretty much defined who they were. And they shared their experience of Him with as many as wanted it, be it in their own home, at prayer meetings, in occasional encounters or in the Church.

A few years ago, Ron handed me a copy of a booklet entitled, “Alone but Never Lonely” which turned out to be his no bars held, anecdotal autobiography. It was another way of sharing his experience both of life and of the central part which the Lord played in his life. I can’t go into its detail here, but even looking at the titles of some of the book’s 30 short chapters tells you much about him. Here are a few of those titles: “return to the fold”, “spiritual intrusion”, “down to serious business”, “metanoia (conversion)”, “from pride to obedience”, “facing reality”, “our eighth house move”, “a time to be born, a time to die.” Ron took time to reflect on his life and on its salient moments and characters and this gave him a deeper awareness of who he was, and what and who had made him who he was.

Ron exuded an inner strength. He had a strong character foundation by nature which was reinforced by living through WWII, by boarding school, national service, hospital stays, professional trials, spiritual trials and so much more. But the more authentic strength in Ron was unquestionably his spiritual resilience rooted in a powerful conversion experience to Christ when he was in the depths of despondency in mid-life. You might even say that Jesus hijacked Ron’s natural strength and used it to propel Ron into a life of great spiritual fortitude both for his own good and for the good of many others. At times, he could be overpowering in his engagement with you, and forceful in making his point. At other times, though, he was very thoughtful and considerate and could be great fun with his wit and repartee. Although he missed Betty sorely, his stiff upper lip and sense of duty meant that he lived his years as a widower with great self-discipline. He would still rise during the night to pray at length and was very conscious of his responsibility to live out his role as an Oblate of the Tyburn Benedictines here in Largs.

It was, I think, evident to anyone who knew Ron that, for all he lived life on this earth to the full, with all its joys and sorrows, his heart was most definitely set on the Kingdom of Heaven. His conversion experience to Christ in his mid-forties was just the beginning of a love story which we can confidently hope has now reached its final, heavenly stage. For Ron was someone who fully expected the Lord to keep the Word He speaks in today’s Gospel: “I go to prepare a place for you (and) I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also.” And Ron most certainly knew the Way, the Truth and the Life. For this same reason, Ron expended himself within his own context to make Christ known and loved. To mention another Word of Christ, Ron was a “good and faithful servant” and, despite his sins and foibles, will hopefully “receive the Kingdom prepared for” him “since the foundation of the world.” All his good deeds will go with him and will be his glory. And we pray that any sins he committed through human frailty will be mercifully stripped from him and destroyed in the fire of divine mercy.

Ron was a very real person. No matter what happened to him, he faced it head on and he got to the bottom of what it meant. He didn’t avoid reality, no matter how harsh. He didn’t repress anything or deny it. Sometimes he called a spade a shovel, but his goal was always to call things out. If someone like this, then, identifies Jesus Christ as the centre of his life, as the reality of his life, that cannot be dismissed as fantasy. Might it perhaps be the opposite? That those who dismiss Jesus as a fantasy are the ones who are not real? We can be “real” in terms of our contemporary world’s mindset where money, prestige, social standing, power, self-will and similar such things are considered as the framework of the modern person. But how lasting, how truly fulfilling are such things? Ron’s realities reflect those of Christ: self-sacrifice for God, spiritual integrity, witness to the Gospel, the primacy of God in all things and the search for the Spirit of God in prayer and worship. Christ, not self, not any human ideal or relationship, was the centre of Ron’s inner and outer life. That was because he had let Christ meet him personally and powerfully.

Ron could sing with deep and moving conviction: “Thine be the glory, risen, conquering Son; endless is the victory thou o’er death has won.” He experienced that “amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now, I’m found; was blind but now I see.” The Christ Ron knew was the Christ who died out of love for him personally and rose on the third day for him personally. It wasn’t a picture postcard or plastic Jesus Ron loved, but the real Christ of the Cross, the grave and the Resurrection. This Christ was his strength, his love, his speech and the longing of his heart.

In the face of this, we cannot help but be put on the spot. There can be a tendency in our world today to sniff disdainfully at the idea of God and at the notion that we need saved from sin or even death. We no longer even ask the questions: What does life mean? Death? Who am I and what is my destiny? Ron’s life, and the meaning he gave to his death, invite us to turn our eyes and hearts to Jesus Christ. There is no question that He desires to meet us in deep and loyal love and to open up our lives to new and eternal horizons. Let us give Him the chance.