ARCHDIOCESE OF PHILADELPHIA

It was less than two months ago, December 12 last, that we heard the announcement of Dr. Amore’s health difficulties. At that time she wrote: "Dear Friends, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence from Rosemont.... It has truly been a joy and privilege to serve as Rosemont’s President since 2001. I have always been and will continue to be, proud to be a member of the Rosemont College community."

The College graciously responded through the Chair of the Board of Trustees, saying: "All our prayers and good wishes are with President Amore. President Amore’s leadership, her commitment to Rosemont, and her boundless energy have enabled Rosemont to clearly define itself according to its mission...."

Just six days later, God, in His wisdom and goodness, took Ann to Himself definitively.

After the Mass celebrated yesterday for students and parents, we gather today as friends, members of the College and alumni to pray for Ann, to remember her and her family—her father and brothers—and to keep alive the legacy of her commitment as a Christian woman and educator, a disciple of Jesus Christ and a member of His Church. In our prayer we entrust her soul to God, who is merciful and gracious and abounding in kindness. In her own goodness, kindness and graciousness, Ann endeavored to imitate the Lord to whom we now commend her.

The death of every Christian, like his or her life, is related to the life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is the life, Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ that give special meaning to all human life, and special power to us to live life worthily.

In this Memorial Mass we evoke then and commemorate and re-enact in the Eucharist the Death and Resurrection of Jesus as the source and summit of Dr. Amore’s life of loving service to so many people that benefitted from her generosity and dedication. We also proclaim in the Gospel Saint Luke’s account of how the Death and Resurrection of Jesus took place. These events, which we call the Paschal Mystery, are so important for us because they give us all the right to eternal life. Today we extol the gift that God gives to Ann, the gift whereby she shares fully in God’s loving plan by entering into His eternal life.

For our reflection and thanksgiving the Gospel recounts how Jesus redeemed the world, how He redeemed Ann, and you and me and all of us. "It was about noon and darkness came over the whole land until three in the afternoon....Then...Jesus cried out in a loud voice: ‘Father, into your hands I commend my spirit’; and when he had said this he breathed his last." And then, the Gospel tells us, how Joseph of Arimathea took the body of Jesus down from the Cross and laid Him in a new tomb.

What follows in the Gospel is so important: "At daybreak on the first day of the week the women...went to the tomb. They found the stone rolled away from the tomb; but when they entered they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus." Rather they heard the angels announce to them: "Why do you seek the living one among the dead? He is not here, but he has been raised."

In our second reading today Saint Paul explains to us the full meaning of this Death and Resurrection of Jesus. He says: "Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.... For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life, but each one in proper order: Christ the firstfruits; then...those who belong to Christ....The last enemy to be destroyed is death."

As we keep alive Ann’s memory, we likewise renew our holy Catholic faith in the power of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. And this faith in Christ’s victory over death leads us to hope and to joy and to the renewed commitment of our lives in Christian charity and service.

In the tradition of the Church, we continue to pray for Ann, as we entrust her to God’s goodness, reiterating in the words of the Psalm that the Lord is indeed merciful and gracious and abounding in kindness.

These qualities of God which assure us of the gift of eternal life are also the qualities that He invites us to imitate and to show to others. We believe that Ann was faithful to this mission through her goodness, her graciousness, her kindness.

We are deeply grateful to Ann for her contribution not only to Rosemont College and, before that, for so long to Saint Francis College, but also for her service to our entire community, to all those who benefitted from her faith and love. And finally we praise God for His having given her the grace and strength and perseverance to labor generously and well.

Our final act of farewell is a renewal of our faith in eternal life, obtained and offered and imparted by Jesus Christ, of whom we boast as being the first-born of the dead.

Dear Ann, we will always honor your sacred memory, guard the deposit of your Christian faith and praise God for your gift of self to the many whom you loved and served so well. Amen.