Posted on 04/06/2013 10:28:17 AM PDT by River Hawk
Before us lies eternity: our souls are love, and a continual farewell.
— “Ephemera,” W.B. Yeats
LAWRENCE AUSTER, traditionalist writer and culture critic, was buried by friends and family on Tuesday, April 2 in Pennsylvania.
His body was carried at 11:30 a.m. into the vestibule of the Holy Cross Catholic Church in Mount Airy in a simple oak coffin made by Trappist monks in Iowa, a fitting enclosure for a man who lived as austerely as a monk, without many of the basics of modern life, such as cell phone, car or cable television. The church was just two miles from the summer home of one of Mr. Auster’s fondest heroes, George Washington, a figure who always inspired him.
In the foyer, his remains were blessed for the first time. Accompanied by a quiet reverence — a decision was made to forgo music — the coffin was taken by his friends to the front of the stone Gothic church. Easter lilies decorated the main marble altar. Large baskets of snapdragons, white chrysanthemums and other flowers flanked the casket. Artificial illumination of the altar and the sunlight that filtered through the stained-glass windows evoked the significance of the great feast that gives the Church its meaning. The stone walls and wooden beams, dramatically carved with the faces of angels and their wings, enhanced the prayerful atmosphere.
The Mass was celebrated by the Rev. David Ousley, who read the account of the resurrection of Lazarus from the Gospel of St. John. In this story of one miracle, there is a line that stands out in the entire Bible: “Jesus wept.” God himself felt the torment of human grief. He loved a man so much that he cried.
Then said the Jews, Behold how he loved him!
“Truth matters,” Father Ousley said in his homily. He said that it was his great fortune to have met Lawrence Auster and that he regretted that he had not been able to spend more time with him. He was taken by Mr. Auster’s intelligence and inquisitiveness and had looked forward to discussing various “contradictions” attendant to the pursuit of faith.
On March 20, 2013, Mr. Auster wrote the following to Father Ousley after a visit:
[A]fter you left, [we] spoke of what an excellent man you are, and how you are the perfect man to bring me into the Catholic Church – another proof of how I am being helped along by a higher power. We also talked about how you never say anything unnecessary. I said that you perfectly practice the counsel La Rochefoucauld presented in what to me is his most brilliant saying (I’ve discussed it several times at my site).
I’m writing this from memory and am sure I’m getting some of it some of it wrong:
La veritable éloquence est à dire tout-ce-quil faut, et à ne dire que ce’quil faut.
Which in English is:
True eloquence is to say all that is necessary and only what is necessary.
That’s you.
For example, in our get together today, after I spoke of what has been going on with me recently, which you attentively listened to and showed that you appreciated, you said, “Now what do you think of becoming a Catholic?” Without any unnecessary conversation or transitions, you moved our talk right into the essential and necessary topic of our meeting.
Faith is ultimately an act of the will, not the intellect, Father Ousley said at that time. The priest is rector of the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, a parish housed at Holy Cross that belongs to the Anglican Ordinariate of the Catholic Church. He lost his former Episcopal parish, St. James the Less, and all its property as a result of his objections to homosexuality among Anglican clerics. A friend at the funeral remarked that Lawrence Auster, raised a Jew and baptized an Anglican as an adult, had encompassed the three major strands of American religious life: Jew, Protestant and Catholic. Upon the ordination of practicing homosexuals, Mr. Auster, who was often searingly critical of post-Vatican II Catholic leadership, said the Episcopal Church “is no longer a Christian body by any reasonable definition of the word.”
In addition to Mr. Auster’s relatives, including his brother, James Auster, and nieces and nephews, longtime readers of View From the Right attended the funeral. One reader came from California. Another rose at 4:30 a.m. and drove with his father to Philadelphia from Columbus, Ohio. Others traveled from Virginia, Maryland, New York and Connecticut. A student at Bryn Mawr College came on behalf of her parents, who are VFR readers.
Mr. Auster’s body was taken in a procession to Saints Peter and Paul Cemetery in Springfield, Pennsylvania, about 15 miles from the church, where it was lowered into a grave in an open lawn next to an oak tree. In the spring sun, the scene evoked “The Song of the Happy Shepherd” by W.B. Yeats, one of the many poems by the Irish poet that Mr. Auster cherished and knew by heart:
I must be gone: there is a grave Where daffodil and lily wave, And I would please the hapless faun, Buried under the sleepy ground, With mirthful songs before the dawn.
The casket was blessed a final time and strewn with flowers.
Friends and family gathered at a restaurant nearby, where they viewed photos of Mr. Auster in his various incarnations over the years and delivered moving remembrances of him. By the time everyone went their separate ways they took with them new appreciations of the man they loved and admired, and whom they had lost too soon.
In equating our intimate historic bonds to our mother country and to Canada with our ties to Mexico, W. shows a staggering ignorance of the civilizational facts of life. The reason we are so close to Britain and Canada is that we share with them a common historical culture, language, literature, and legal system, as well as similar standards of behavior, expectations of public officials, and so on. My Bush Epiphany By Lawrence Auster
Yes, it’s a great loss to the conservative community. The good thing is, his website “View from the Right” is staying up, I recommend readers check it out, it has a lot of good material.
I wasn’t sure if you knew.
I have known since he passed. Too bad linking his site was forbidden here. Rest in peace Sir Lawrence
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.