The bumper sticker on his last car still proclaims: Barre Rocks.
Rene Sabetto was duly proud to be a stone worker, the son of stone workers. He told us many stories of his youth in and near the quarries. After his adventures, in the Civilian Conservation Corps, seeking work in Worcester during the Great Depression, sent to Japan in the terrible days as the War was ending, after his adventures Rene settled in Claremont with the love of his life. He did enjoy the company of women, especially smart women. He no longer breathed the stone dust but he had an abiding love of the rocky places. Rene knew God to be his Rock, to be his Salvation.
In the last couple of years he framed the stories of his life, preparing a window that will soon light this place. The window has the image of St. Clement, a gentle man so much like our beloved Rene Sabetto. Clement lived in Rome and knew Peter and Paul. He was a gentle bearer of the faith propelled into leadership. He knew everyone in Rome – the folks who ran the city and the folks who made the city work. His gentleness and faithfulness drew people to Christ and he was ordained as the fourth bishop of Rome, a keeper of the keys, a caretaker of the church and its members, just as Peter had served before him. Clement’s one surviving letter is to the fractious group of believers in Corinth. Just as Paul had done before him, St. Clement pleaded with the fractious faithful in Corinth for mutual forbearance, urging them to lives filled with loving kindness. Clement’s loving service in Rome gathered so many to follow the way of Jesus that he was exiled to the stone quarries in what is now Ukraine. There his gentleness and sureness continued to bring more people to the faith. Clement’s ministry was ended only when the authorities tossed him into the sea with an anchor around his neck. Clement’s life is honored in the major strands of the Catholic Christian family – the Roman tradition, the Orthodox tradition and the Anglican Tradition.
Like Clement, Rene’s gentle ways were infused with a quiet, and unshaken faith. He lived the words he prayed, loving his neighbors as himself. He knew Jesus, and followed in the Way. Rene delighted in taking care. Taking care of his daughters, taking care of his friends, taking care of the creatures of the earth. Rene had an awakening about the natural world that he loved so dearly. As he became one of our elders he grew became a caretaker of the creatures rather than a hunter. As in many things he taught, quietly and gently, by example. Rene spent much of his time taking care of this place that he loved so dearly. And he took care us this place, of us who now are its stewards, by finding someone to look after it as passionately and carefully and gently as he did.
Leaving this life quietly and in peace Rene has fallen into the sea of God’s boundless love. He is at one with the Compassionate heart of the universe. Like Clement before him, he leaves the community he loves a blessing. Several months ago, he said this to me, that I might share it with you on this occasion. Rene Sabetto says to the Saints of Claremont: “We don’t have so many people now, but they are such good people, quality people. If we hold together we’ll be all right.” Amen, Rene. We’ll be all right. AMEN
No comments:
Post a Comment