In an uplifting funeral service at Brentwood Cathedral today, many people came together to pray for Bishop Emeritus Thomas McMahon, who died last month. Cardinal Vincent Nichols presided, welcoming (with Bishop Alan) bishops, priests, family, friends and faithful, His Majesty’s Lord Lieutenant, ecumenical guests, the Anglican Bishop of Bradwell, and representatives of the Methodists, the Quakers, and churches together in Essex and East London.
“We gather this morning in prayer to lift up Bishop Thomas to our Heavenly Father. We gather in thanksgiving as we give thanks to God for all he did through Bishop Thomas’s priesthood and Episcopal ministry, and we gather in sorrow as we seek to comfort one another with assurances of faith.”
In an inspiring homily which focused on resurrection, Fr Martin Boland said: “Our gathering here today is an act of defiance because this assembly celebrates the truth that death will not have the last word. The last word can only be spoken by God and that word is life.”
He said that the words Surrexit Dominus, the Lord is risen, carved into the stone lintel of the Cathedral built by Bishop Thomas were “key to understanding the building, but perhaps also something of the man”. He recalled Bishop Thomas referencing a vivid image that G.K. Chesterton used to describe the early Christians as holding a key in their hands: faith in the risen Lord. “The key, Chesterton writes, that could unlock the prison of the whole world and let in the white daylight of liberty. With its high windows, this cathedral exists to let in the white daylight of liberty. The light of Easter morning pouring through the fabric of time and place allows us to see that we are free men and women in Jesus Christ.”
When the cathedral was built Bishop Thomas insisted that the altar stand at the heart of the building, he added, as a powerful sign of Christ, “the still, fixed and central point in the feverish carousel of our earthly lives”.
“For Bishop Thomas, the position of this altar captured the central action of the liturgy: that Christ is visibly lifted up and draws all men and women to himself.”
He said: “Written in stone and space and light, this building is Bishop Thomas’s most important homily and one that has been preserved for future generations to hear.”
Bishop Thomas was profoundly moved by the insights of the Second Vatican Council, 60 years ago, said Fr Martin. “His conviction was that the tone and the insights of the Council existed for one purpose alone: to sanctify the world. The helix of liturgy, the word of God, ecumenism, and engagement with society created a spiral thread within his being.”
That conviction shaped his episcopal work. Fr Martin quoted Stephen Cottrell, Bishop of Chelmsford and now Archbishop of York who has written: “I believe that because of Bishop Thomas’s work and witness, the Christian community in Essex worked more closely together than in almost anywhere else I know in this country.”
Said Fr Martin: “That work and witness was also evident in his commitment to our young people, to education, to the role of the laity, and his fearless advocacy for the weakest and poorest. His commitment to Albanian refugees following the Kosovan war, campaigning for a test ban on nuclear weapons, the polite but steely moral force behind his many letters to politicians. The linking of this diocese with the Diocese of Dundee in South Africa and so much more.
“But I suggest that there was one building as important to him as the cathedral, and that was Anchor House – now Your Place in London’s East End. It was he who secured the property for one purpose: to serve the homeless. And with the initial help of generous donors, he laid its financial foundations. When I visited Bishop Thomas just weeks before he died, he said that this was the achievement he was most proud of. Anchor House allowed the white light of liberty to irradiate the lives of so many men and women. It continues to do so.”
As a man, he added, Bishop Thomas was “urbane, thoughtful and kind. How many of us here are in possession of a handwritten note from him whose words proved a balm of consolation and hope in times of difficulty?”
He went on to describe the Bishop’s kindness to a woman who had had an abortion and wished the child’s grave to be blessed: “He met with her, prayed with her, and blessed the grave. In all his grace and fragile humanity, Bishop Thomas was above all a disciple, allowing himself to be prised open daily by the Easter mysteries.”
Read the homily in full here: Homily at Bishop Thomas’s funeral
Watch the recorded funeral here: Live broadcast of Requiem Mass: Bishop Thomas McMahon — Shea Lolin