Senator Kennedy is perhaps the most Christian senator yet to be seated in that august chamber. I just watched his funeral mass and it affirmed that conviction. Yet he never wore it on his sleeves like some of his phony christian colleagues.
The Gospel chosen to be read at the service was all of Ted Kennedy was Matthew 25:31-46. The versus which stand out and are easily remembered from childhood are these: `Lord, when did we see thee hungry and feed thee, or thirsty and give thee drink? And when did we see thee a stranger and welcome thee, or naked and clothe thee? And when did we see thee sick or in prison and visit thee?' And the King will answer them, `Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren, you did it to me.'
To the least of my brethren. The poor, the outcast, the disadvantaged, the immigrant, the gay, the deformed, the debilitated, the lame, the sick. Mother Theresa herself as she ministered to the poorest of the poor. Jesus as he met the lepers and the Samaritan woman at the well.
Ted Kennedy ran with the Gospel of Matthew all of his life, he took it to heart and made it his life's goal. Jesus would smile on him.
One of the eulogists said of him that he always remembered who he was fighting for- the disadvantaged in America. Not the corporate interests, not the wealthy, not the well-connected. He knew he was there for The People. The People who surrounded Jesus.
Who now will take up that baton? Who will rise to fill the gap left by this Lion of the Senate? This man of The People?
