We celebrated Brother Bernie Colleran’s 50th jubilee of profession as a Redemptorist in the retreat house chapel in the spring of 2003. We celebrated Bernie’s farewell mass and luncheon in July 2019 before he was transferred to the Redemptorist healthcare facility in Maryland. Bernie died almost a year later on June 9, 2020. Today we are finally celebrating the mass of Christian burial for our beloved Bernie.Bernie died during the 90th year of his life – having lived 67 of those years as a Redemptorist Brother. One could sum up his entire life with the words: “He was a man of few words and much action.”

Ronald Rohlheiser says there are three stages of Christian discipleship: 1. Getting our lives together. 2. Giving our lives away and 3. Giving our deaths away. Bernie got his life together very early with his decision to become a Redemptorist. He gave his life away to so many of us with his activity as a Redemptorist Brother. His giving of life was seen in his years as an office brother in OLPH parish in Brooklyn, in his years as a Consultor to the Provincial Superior, and especially in his 34 years at San Alfonso Retreat House. There we witnessed his kindness – his never ending behind-the-scenes energy.

Brother Bernie became the most popular Brother in our C.SS.R. Province – he was known and loved by other Redemptorist confreres as well as by the retreatants. The name “Brother Bernie” became synonymous with San Alfonso Retreat House. Our weekend retreats could have been labeled “Weekend at Bernie’s.”Just like Jesus, Bernie came among us as one who serves, and he loved his life as a Redemptorist Brother. He was often asked why he didn’t become a priest. Bernie answered – because I wanted to be a brother. And he was some brother.

Each one of us here has our own experiences and memories of this good man, friend, and brother. Ponder them. Relish them. Enjoy remembering and sharing them. That was how he gave his life away.Br. Bernie’s life and death paralleled the life and death of Jesus. Bernie’s passivity, his acceptance, his physical diminishment, his declining health and sickness, were the ways Bernie gave his death away.

We saw Bernie’s passion in how he aged. His not being able to do for himself and others as he was accustomed to. His falling down at times, needing others to help him up.The really big hurt came to him with his transfer from the retreat house to our healthcare residence in Maryland. The pain he must have felt in leaving this place that he so loved was another way he gave his death away. He really loved his San Alfonso years here. “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” was the prayer he often prayed each day at Timonium. He gave his death away by being confined as we all were due to the pandemic. Bernie was alone in a place where visitors were not permitted.

Even in his actual dying, Bernie was denied a funeral mass, a burial, and a tribute for almost a year. Bernie’s cremains came back to us months ago and rested on a small table in our house chapel. We felt and enjoyed his silent presence. He was still with us when we came to pray. There is not a person here or there who, although sad at his passing, does at the same time feel glad and blessed because of Bernie’s presence in their lives. The way Bernie gave his life and death away reinforced all the goodness of his active and passive years, and all the love his years poured over and into each one of us.

Bernie showed us how to live our years with love and kindness and he also taught us how to die with grace and acceptance. His life and death were blessings on us all. We just listened to the conclusion of John’s gospel where the Risen Jesus is talking to Peter on the seashore: “As a young man you fastened your belt and went about as you pleased but when you are older you will stretch out your hands and another will tie you fast and carry you off against your will. No matter – your business is to FOLLOW ME.” That’s just what Bernie did so well. In his active days and in his passive days, he followed Jesus – from start to finish – from beginning to end – not the end but to the new and eternal life that he now forever enjoys.

When good people die, their spirit issues forth from their casket. Bernie’s spirit of love and loyalty, of service, and friendship are the blessings that rise from his cremains.The goodness of his life and death leaves a spirit of blessings that hover over each one of us. His name is Brother Bernard Colleran, C.Ss.R.A man of a few words – but a man of much action – and much passion. We thank you, Bernie. We miss you, Bernie. We will see you again, Bernie. As we remember you, Bernie, we ask that you remember us as you enjoy your forever life in God’s Kingdom.