Funeral Homily for Gloria Holmes Riley: Gloria In Exclesis
- standrewcin
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
“Believe in God, Believe also in me,” Jesus says, “for I have prepared a place for you.”
Today, as we lay Gloria Holmes Riley to rest, confident in the holy habitation that Jesus has prepared for her from the beginning of creation,
I’m moved to preach to you: Gloria in excelsis.
To strive for excellence, to be excellent in all that you set yourself toward is a truly difficult thing to do.
It is difficult, because in order to even set yourself on the path requires attention to detail, it requires resilience in the face of obstacles large and small, externally pressed upon you, or the internal doubts or excuses that you put in your own way.
Excellence simply means that you give your best and aim for your highest potential in everything you do, no cap.
Yes, even to strive for excellence is a difficult thing to do.
Gloria Holmes Riley was truly an excellent person.
Living all over the world, belonging to so many amazing organizations, achieving her educational goals and bringing her best gifts everywhere she went,
Doing everything she put her mind to with a sense of poise and penchant for style.
Gloria was the type of person who would smile at you the first time you met her and then build a lasting friendship with ease.
That’s because you knew that you could trust her.
I experienced one of these many many friendships here at St. Andrew’s, where for a time, I became the courier between Gloria and her great friend Corinne Blanton, taking communion and messages to each while Gloria was still living in Cincinnati.
I got to be the envelope that carried their love and admiration for each other back and forth across the city.
And, look, I know that they were also talking on the phone in between, telling each other, “Okay, I just sent Fr. Chris back to you.”
And I loved every second of being part of it.
I will also keep Gloria in my heart, because she was a motivator, and she was always sharing words of affirmation.
During pandemic, when we were all struggling for connection, she would write to me at least once a month with little messages of gratitude for our online worship.
She brought the best out of people, she helped those around her excel, not by some strict demand for perfection, but by knowing that she was present, cheering you on, and paying attention to the details.
My friends, we need people in our lives who strive for excellence and who help to bring our own excellence out from us: people like our Gloria in excelsis Riley.
We need them especially now, when the lowest common denominator is the way that our society encourages us to be.
Confidence and assurance only come out of knowing that there has been a fastidious attention to detail, and a fierce moral inventory of the motivation behind excellence;
That the person who demands your excellence is trustworthy, and that the end result will be glorious.
Doesn’t this sound like Gloria Holmes Riley?
And doesn’t it also sound like our God, our Holy Spirit, our Lord Jesus Christ?
We need people like Gloria, because they remind us of how excellent, trustworthy, and glorious our God is.
When we hear the words Gloria in excelsis, many of us probably think of that wonderful Christmas song based on Luke chapter 2, “Angels we have heard on high, sweetly singing through the night, Gloooria…”
Before that, though, it was an ancient hymn of praise to God, which we still say in our Morning Prayer service and sing at the beginning of Eucharist services.
That ancient canticle, translated into Latin in the 4th century by Hilary of Poitiers, sings of God’s excellence, because we know that we can trust in God.
God pays attention to details, God demands our excellence, and at the end we know that the result will be our Glory in God’s heaven.
The Scripture readings that we heard today are about not being overly troubled by our current cares, by coming out of the great ordeal, by those times that cause us to lament.
Jesus says, “do not let your hearts be troubled.”
And he says that to us based on God’s attention to detail. “I will go to prepare a place for you;”
Words echoed in the song by Civilla Martin, who reminds us that God’s eye is on the Sparrow.
God’s promises are trustworthy, because God is excellent: God is paying attention to all of the details.
Jesus demands our best efforts, and when we think, like St. Thomas, that we don’t know the way, he shows us His Way,
Words reaffirmed by James Wheldon Johnson, “keep us forever in the path, we pray.”
God’s promises are trustworthy, because the one who demands our excellence is one who suffered in every way as we do and yet did not sin.
Jesus shows us that God’s claim on our excellence is not based on a top-down demand from a God, who doesn’t know our struggles,
But from a Christ who went through it all, a friend who stands beside us with words of affirmation, a lamb who washes our robes in his sacrifice of mercy.
Gloria in excelsis doesn’t just mean that God is up there in the highest heaven remotely high looking down on us,
Gloria in excelsis means that if we live an excellent life toward God, then we will see glory even in death, and that one day when the Glory comes it will be ours;
Because Christ by highest heaven adored, Christ our everlasting Lord, has come down from on high, and has gone before us to prepare the Way back up.
Today, and in the days to come, as we reflect on our Gloria in excelsis, as we remember and give thanks for our Gloria Holmes Riley,
I hope you will also remember to excel in all that you do and say.
We need more people like Gloria in this world, and we’ve given this Gloria in excelsis back to God,
So that means it’s your turn.
Give your glory to God in the highest through your own excellence, be trustworthy, pay attention to details, don’t get discouraged, be an easy friend, do it with style and grace,
And let Gloria in excelsis continue to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Amen.
Comments