VIGIL
SERVICE / PREACHING
Thursday, April 19, 2001
Brother Daniel Thomas, O.P.
BROTHER ROBERT LAVIGNE, O.P.
1914 – 2001
On
Holy Saturday, April 14, 2001, 86 year old Brother Robert Lavigne fell down the front
steps at St. Albert's Priory, Oakland,
California. He went out to check on the arrival of the day's mail and apparently
suffered some kind of black-out which caused him to fall face forward down the five cement
steps. There was no indication that he even raised his hands to break the fall and
every bone in his face was broken.
At
the time, most of the Dominican community was at lunch and nobody knows how long Brother
Robert lay unconscious before he was found by two of the brethren coming home. He
was rushed to a local trauma hospital and never regained consciousness. He died on
Easter Sunday morning at 9:15.
The
following is the eulogy that Brother Daniel Thomas preached at the Vigil which was held in
the Chapel at St. Albert's Priory in Oakland, California on Thursday evening, April 19,
2001
Since
this eulogy was delivered to the assembled Dominican community who knew Brother Robert
well, the following explanations might be in helpful to people who didn't know Brother
Robert as well as we did.
Brother
Robert was notoriously curious. He was obsessed with following through with any task or
duty that fell into his awareness. He had a wonderful sense of humor and was known
for his practical jokes and his use of word bridges which were very
familiar to all the Dominicans and those who were close to him.
In
the eulogy, Brother Daniel uses these word bridges frequently and they have been
placed in quotation marks and marked with bold italic type.
Brother
Robert had a fondness for airplanes, trains, stamps and baseball as long as it was
the Oakland A’s. His bedroom walls were papered with pictures of airplanes,
stamps and, I'm sure, every ticket stub from every A’s game he ever attended.
There
was not a single empty space on his shelves or walls for anything else. Behind his
desk, on a floor to ceiling bookcase, he assembled more than 110 statues and religious
plaques which he had collected over the years. The largest was a 14 inch high statue
of Mary, Our Lady of Victory. The smallest was less than one inch high, also, Mary,
Our Lady of Grace.
Fr.
Paul Scanlon, the Prior, asked Brother Daniel to put together the religious symbols
that would be placed next to the coffin. References are made in the eulogy to
the items which include a roll of duct tape, some telephone wire and an antique monkey
wrench.
The
following is the text of the eulogy as it was delivered. Parenthesized /italicized
statements are made to make the text clear.
Scripture
Text: John 20
“... So Peter set out with the other disciple to go to the tomb. They ran
together, but the other disciple, running faster than Peter, reached the tomb first; he
bent down and saw the linen cloths lying on the ground, but did not go in. Simon
Peter who was following now came up, went right into the tomb, saw the linen cloths on the
ground, and also the cloth that had been rolled up in a place by itself. Then the
other disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in; he saw and he
believed.”
I
am edified and honored that Fr. Paul asked me to preach this eulogy and asked me to
prepare the symbols that are gathered here in the chapel.
I
choose this scriptural passage because I thought it really spoke to the life of Brother
Robert. We all know how curious he was and that he was relentless in searching out
whatever was the current quest. If a message or letter came in we know how dedicated
Brother Robert was in finding that person or finding out where to send the note or where
to deliver the message. Even in these latter years when it became more and more
difficult for him to get up and down the stairs he would search high and low to get to the
bottom of what he considered a mystery. He had to finish the task. He had to
complete the quest. He had to know.
Now
he knows. He doesn't have to stand and wait any longer. The final mail
delivery has come. After years and years of patient waiting, he finally won the
sweepstakes. It's just that it wasn't Ed McMahann. He opened the door and fell
into the arms of the Resurrected Lord! He won the grand prize. Now he
knows what it's all about.
“Speaking
of the Carmelites.”
Yes.
Brother Robert had his ways of breaking into the conversation and he broke into our lives
in ways that nobody else will probably ever be able to do. He broke into our lives
and preached to us in the most wonderful way. He didn't even know he was
preaching. He would have been embarrassed if you told him that his life was an
example of good preaching.
Parts
of his life are on display here tonight. From the picture of him when he was
probably in his “terrible two's” - to all the loves of his life: the
Order; his sister; planes, trains and the “A's” or maybe ‘planes, trains,
the ‘A’s’ and stamps. All items that were on his door and in
his room. The labeling on the pictures is his, not mine.
When
Fr. Paul asked me to assemble the things that would encompass the life of Brother Robert -
I knew, even before I went into his room, some of what I would gather. I knew that
Brother Robert had a great collection of statues. I knew he had them all arranged on
the bookshelf behind his desk. They're all here. All one hundred and ten of
them but I just placed two on the stand right here next to his body: the largest and
the smallest. They're both figures of Mary: one Our Lady of Victory, the
other Our Lady of Grace. The rest are all over there. Please take some time to
pick one out and take it as a kind of “4th class relic” of Brother Robert and
remember that he is praying for you.
I
also knew that Brother Robert had saved every prayer book that the brothers had ever used
throughout all the changes and modifications that occurred: from the ‘Little
Office of the BVM;’ the short breviary; the interim breviary; the Latin/English
Dominican Missal - a book on living the vows; the Dominican Constitutions for
the use of Lay Brothers (which I'd never seen before!) and including the Office Book that
he used daily and faithfully in this chapel.
I
also placed his scrap books over there which record most of his life. Look them
over. There's also a ‘guest book’ which we would appreciate your signing
and we will give that to Brother Robert's sister, Sister Mary Louis who was unable to
travel here for the funeral.
I
also got the crucifix that was on his pillow on his bed. It's the one that Brother
John Ahmann remounted since it was old and falling apart and all held together by...
“Speaking
of duct tape.”
Of
all the millions of items that are in Brother Robert's room I never ever found - even the
smallest roll of duct tape! So I had to search out a roll … (here Brother
Daniel picked up the roll and tore off a three-foot long piece of duct tape, picked up a
small amount of old telephone wire and grabbed an old monkey wrench from the
table and went over to the coffin to ‘strengthen’ the handle on the coffin)
…because we're just not sure that this handle will stay on if it's not taped
just a little bit. But to make sure, a little bit of wire will help do the trick.
And I'll take a small pipe wrench just in case I need it! It wasn't hard to find all
these items in his room.
Now
that handle, like so many pipes, fittings, tables, windows, doors and what-have-you's here
at St. Albert's and up at McKenzie Bridge will last until the next millennium!
Through
all this, I'm sure Brother Robert is saying, “Don't go out of your way for me.
I'll just take it the way it is.”
Brother
Robert, who would never ask for anything special to be done for him has ended up with the
most glorious funeral of anybody I've ever seen! Would we get this many flowers and
all these decorations for anybody else? He never looked for the glory on his own and
in following a quiet way he got the “hundred fold.” Just look at this
place.
“Speaking
of trains.”
When
Brother Robert would come up to McKenzie Bridge he'd take the train and get an economy
bedroom. The only complaint that he had was that they didn't serve Manhattans.
I'd go to Eugene to meet him and he'd come towards me, waving his hand, “Yep.
Hello. Haven't seen you since the last time.” He only traveled with a
small valise since he kept a complete set of clothes at St. Benedict's.
He
was torn between his love for St. Albert's and his fondness for St. Benedict's. I
think that his connections to these two places and his worry about how life would continue
at the one, while he was at the other, really kept him going. He would tell me,
“No, Daniel. I don't think I can come up right now. The Students are
away, or the Novices are on tour and there's nobody to serve the Community Mass. I
think the “community” at those times usually consisted of him and Fr. Janko.
He
was supposed to come up the McKenzie this Holy Week but he declined because he was saving
himself for my 60th birthday party in late June. The invitation was taped to the
mirror over his sink. He already had his train ticket and I found a bottle of
bourbon in is room with a note, “a gift: take to McKenzie.”
The
times when Robert was at McKenzie Bridge - and especially those times when it was just him
and me - were the most special of all my memories of Brother Robert. It was at those
times when he was most himself. He never had to come up to me with his fake mustard
squirters or walk around with his catsupped finger poking through a paper cup.
Those
were the times when he talked to me about his growing up. About the death of his
mother when he was just a small boy. About the French-Canadian postulant who left
the convent to become housekeeper for him and his younger sister and brother.
We
would sit at table - often for extended periods of time - talking about his growing up
years and his entrance into the Dominicans. He would always eat EVERYTHING I served
- that was the way he was trained by his strict housekeeper who later became his first
stepmother. After the formal grace he's always say, “’Here's to
‘em all, big and small,’ Shakespeare.” And he'd lift his glass in a
toast.
He
didn't talk much while he ate but he almost always got in a little “one-liner,”
the most famous of which was based on the old joke about the monks who complained about
the food. In that joke, the Prior tells them: “The next one who complains about
the food is out of here!” After that, one of those monks said, ‘This food
tastes like s..t! ...but good!” Robert, who I
don't remember as ever using even the slightest off color language, reduced that entire
joke to, “... but good!” with an added ‘thumb’s up’
sign for good measure.
It
was at one of our dinners that Brother Robert told me about Henrietta Vasher. She was the
young girl that his high school buddies set him up for a blind date. They were all
supposed to meet at an amusement park on Vashon Island, around Detroit. When the two
of them got there nobody else showed up and the young Henry Lavigne said, “Since we
already spent the money to get over here on the ferry we might as well stay for
awhile.”
I
don't think it ever went any further than that.
But
I know this. A few years ago, Brother Robert told me about stopping off in Detroit
on his way to visit his sister and ... and he said this with a twinkle in his eye and a
chuckle in his voice ... he actually looked up in the telephone book to see if Henrietta
Vasher was maybe still around. “She probably got married and changed her
name,” he said, “but I was just curious to see...” And he'd
lower his head, continue eating his mashed potatoes, and chuckle under his breath, “…
but good!” and again, give the familiar ‘thumb’s up’ sign.
Then
he'd move off with his famous exit line: “… To be continued.”
He
told me about coming to the Novitiate in Ross as a clerical candidate. He was having
a hard time memorizing the Epistles of St. Paul in Latin and his Novice Master met with
him wondering if his interests and his calling were more in line with being a lay brother
than with being a priest. He probably already had a roll of duct tape and a few
tools and had worked on some projects around the novitiate.
The
Novice Master told him, “You see that brother out there hanging up the laundry?
See how happy he is? You could be that happy too.”
So,
young Robert switched and began his life as a lay brother.
He
told me - again as we sat at the table up at McKenzie Bridge, “A couple of days later
I asked that brother why he was so happy. He told me, ‘cause tomorrow I'm
leaving and going to marry the cook's daughter!’”
Then
he'd hit his hand on the door feigning an accidental bump: BANG! “Oh!
I almost knocked myself out!”
Of
course, Robert stayed, he made his Profession of Vows and much of his ministerial life was
spent taking care of St. Albert's and St. Benedict's. He is certainly to be credited
with keeping these two places up and running. His Honorary Degree in Engineering
Science is there on his memento board.
I
can certainly tell you this: yesterday morning, when I got up and went to take a
shower – only to find that there was no hot water – I'm sure I wasn't the only
one who thought, ‘If Brother Robert were here the men working on the boiler
replacement wouldn't have made the mistake of turning off the wrong valves!’
Maybe
he was here…
Brother
Robert never complained about how he was treated in those early days when there was a real
separation between the clerics and the lay brothers. He did tell me that there
were some hard times but I never heard him say a disparaging word about ANYONE. I
believe that he was a true “innocent” and I am honored to think that he trusted
me enough to speak to me – in confidence – about some of the most intimate
details of his life. He WAS a holy person.
He
was faithful to prayer. Maybe having those hundred and ten statues arranged on the
bookshelf behind him, keeping watch over him, helped keep him constantly in the presence
of God. What a gift he received. No more questions. No more
wondering ‘what's it all about?’
Brother
Robert really did die with his boots on. He lived a full life. “70 years
- or 80 if we're strong” the psalm tells us. He made it past 86 and left us
with an example. He preached an Easter sermon that was far better than any of us
could expect to do. He preached it by his life. “He saw and he
believed.” Robert didn't really “see” until Easter Sunday.
Before that it was all by faith. Now he KNOWS.
He
waited faithfully at the door, he sought the Lord in all that he did and when he stepped
out on that porch, the Lord rolled back the stone of the tomb and Brother Robert fell into
his arms.
Speaking
of Brother Robert… Would that any of us could be as great.
He
truly rests in peace.
“… to be continued.” |
