For every funeral, Father Dan gave the exact same homily. “We knew it word for word. We could mouth it along behind him,” Charlie said, and though he is in his seventies now, a good distance from his altar-boy self, he began the recitation: “Father Dan would say, ‘We’re on this earth to get ready to die. And when we die, God’s not going to say, “Charlie (Ann, Sally, John, fill-in-the-blank), what did you do for a living? How much money did you make? How many houses did you have?” God is only going to ask us two questions: “Did you love Me?” and “Did you love your neighbor?” And we can imagine
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