Words of Life Spoken in the Whisper of Death by Fran Salone-Pelletier

The following “homily” was delivered by the author at the reception following the memorial service for her husband and dearest friend, Jean Pelletier, who went to the Lord on May 16, 2025. 

All who knew Jean Wilfred Pelletier also recognized that he truly lived the words of Scripture we have just heard and announced. Whether folks knew Jean as Hubby Dear, Papa, The Rabbi, Jean-O, or The Frenchman, they . . . perhaps I should say we . . . knew that Jean’s life centered on praying, helping others, and doing God’s will as best he could decipher it.

Jean Wilfred Pelletier, 1929-2025

God is calling us to live in the same way. We are begged to be good people and live a good life and assist others in doing the same. It won’t be an easy life, but it will be one worth experiencing. It will be a call for us to be kind, caring, compassionate, and understanding with others. The cost will never exceed the price of loving. And, loving will always be the core of our life.

The amazing reality is that we will always receive much more than we give. Our own idiosyncrasies will never erase God’s gracious presence. Instead, they will serve to expand our experience of God’s life in us.

In so doing, we will ask more questions than we can deliver answers. We will respond—rather than react—to the vagaries of life. It won’t be an easy life. However, it will be a deeply experienced one. It will allow us to be touched by others and to touch them in return.

Wondrously, we will discover a life that is empowered by all we endure. We will find multiple reasons and causes that touch us so deeply that we can touch others as well. In an incredibly mysterious way, death will never again be viewed as the loss of life. Instead, life will be infused into every deadly experience that comes our way. Life will be changed, not ended.

Jean lived this life well. Jesus listened and learned. In a special way, he heeded the cries of the poor. These calls were grist for the mill of his own life. They were incorporated in every moment of his life. It continues to this very day and comprises the topic of many homilies.

Jesus listened to those who offered him a different view of life’s ups and downs. Then, he acted positively to enter their lives and to ease their pain, all the while recognizing the comparative painlessness of his own. So did Jean!

I do not remember any passage from the New Testament that bore the observation “Jesus laughed.” However, we can find examples illustrating times when he wept with others.

Jesus prayed with others. He challenged others. I suspect his laughter was so deeply implanted in his being that it could only be expressed in the twinkling of his eyes. His was a life given to others in the multiple ways they were understood, accepted, and were recognized as life-changing realities.

That is also a portrait of Jean Wilfred Pelletier—a man whose delight in life . . . especially the inexplicable wonder of love and laughter . . . was only recognized in in his abdomen’s gentle rise and the twinkling of his eyes.

I know that all of us have stories to tell. We have our moments of raucous laughter and waterfalls of tears. We have insights that delight even as they call us to grow and change. We have our moments where life is inexplicable and we find ourselves in our own garden of agony. These times are moments when our only honest response is “Fiat.” Let it be done to me.

It will not be an experience and expression of empty acceptance. It will be phrased as a prayer to the God-man who gave us his life that we might share it with others.

Yes, I know we all have similar stories to tell. Our tales are filled with the wonder of love, laughter, and life. They may evoke tears of joyful sorrow or giggles of restrained laughter. They may be so personal that they are difficult to voice without pauses of pain. Yet, we must. We must allow the stories of life to pierce the stones of sorrow. Let’s be both gracious and humble enough to share them.

These are words of life spoken in the whisper of death and stored in a hurting heart!

And, may all God’s people say AMEN! ♦

Fran Salone-Pelletier holds a master’s degree in theology. She is the author of a trilogy of scriptural meditations, Awakening to God: The Sunday Readings in Our Lives, in which a version of this reflection originally appeared. She is also a religious educator, retreat leader, lecturer, and grandmother of four. Reach her at hope5@atmc.net.