Homily for the Vigil Service for James “Jimmy” Gracey
Visitation Catholic Church
30 March 2026
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On behalf of Fr. John Lindsey, our pastor, I would like to extend a warm welcome to all of you. To the Gracey family: Therese & Taras, Mary, Tommy, Joe, and Matthew; to so many of your extended family and those friends from the Visitiation and St. Ignatius communities; to those who have traveled here from great distances, especially members of the University of Alabama community and Jimmy’s brothers from Theta Chi, and in a particular way I welcome those who did not know Jimmy but have been moved by human goodwill and deep faith to come here and pray; to all, a reminder of the promise of Jesus, that “where two or three are gathered” in his name, he is there among them.
Indeed, the Lord is here tonight among us.
I was really moved to see Jimmy’s bible on the table in the Fireside Room. In a world where far too many Bibles live forever on a shelf, it was edifying to see a bible there so clearly worn and used. A question that I get asked a lot as a priest is whether you’re allowed to write in your bible…of course you can! And Jimmy did.
Just for fun, during a lull in the activity this afternoon, I picked up Jimmy’s Bible and decided to play a little “Bible roulette.” If you’ve never played, it’s just where you open to a random page and see what little nugget the Lord might have in store for you.
I landed on page 1703, right in the middle of chapter 8 of St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, which we read briefly here tonight. Romans 8:31-39 -
What then shall we stay to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but handed him over for us all, how will he not also give us everything else along with him? Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who acquits us, who will condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, or rather, was raised, who also is at the right hand of God, who indeed intercedes for us.
What will separate us from the love of Christ? Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?…No, in all these things we conquer overwhelmingly through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor present things, nor future things, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Of that long passage, Jimmy underlined only one verse: Romans 8:31 - “What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
A little earlier in chapter 8, Jimmy underlined another verse (8:11) - “If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.
And one more underlined from the same page (7:25) - “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore I myself, with my mind, serve the law of God.”
Then, in what seems to be Jimmy’s characteristic simplicity, he wrote one word: “Powerful.”
The Psalm we sang tonight, Psalm 23, is Jimmy’s song now; it’s the song of all those who loved the Lord in this life and who, in their minds, that is, the very depths of who they were, served the law of God. Those who, as Jimmy did, committed themselves to be steadfast, firm in purpose, and determined to be about the highest things, the best things, the ultimate things, the enduring things; those things that, when stretched or tested, can withstand the test of time.
Most of the young priests you know, who have served here at Visitation - including myself and Deacon Sam, Fr Michael Kearney, Fr Greg Alberts, Fr Matt Pratscher, and others - are graduates of the seminary on the campus of the University of St. Thomas in Minnesota. Living in a dorm with 135 other guys preparing for the priesthood had its own joys and challenges, but living that life meant that, with the exception of Biblical Greek, we are totally uninitiated (pun intended) to the ways of Greek life. I can remember one day overhearing a campus tour guide leading a family on a college visit past the seminary dorm building saying, “This is the seminary. It’s like a frat house, except Jesus lives there and they aren’t allowed to have girlfriends.”
Overall, not a bad explanation.
This week, I found myself Googling Theta Chi, wondering what kind of fraternity this is. Their commitment to true friendship, brotherhood, knowledge and culture, the virtues of Truth and Temperance and Tolerance, and the desire to be truly useful men, truly effective change-makers in the life of their community. It’s easy to see why Theta Chi was attractive to Jimmy.
But it was their emphasis on “the primacy of Alma Mater” that caught my eye. What is a Greek organization doing putting such an emphasis on a Latin Phrase?
Alma Mater, of course, is the name we give to those institutions where we learned and grew and came of age. We call our schools this, especially our colleges this, because of what that phrase means.
“Alma Mater” translates to “Loving and Nurturing Mother.” Our universities stand in parentis locus, in the place of parents, not literally of course, but once the little birdies of Elmhurst have outgrown the nest, they fly on to somewhere else, where they will be loved and nourished in the bosom of higher education. Jimmy understood, as St. Paul taught in the letter to the Romans, that to become a truly Resolute Man, a man committed to and about the highest things, he needed to be renewed in his mind; not just intellectually but spiritually as well.
Jimmy is loved by an amazing, truly Alma Mater, and likewise an Alma Pater, and likewise 3 Alma Fratris and 1 Alma Soror, and countless Alma Amicii.
As a Catholic who knew his faith and who loved his faith, Jimmy was also the son of another Alma Mater, that is, the Church. We use the phrase “Mother” as an image of the Church, who raises us and teaches us and helps us truly put on the mind of Christ, and through the sacramental life gives us a new vision: a vision of this very strange and difficult world that is brimming with hope; a vision of ourselves that, when we are tempted to despair, reminds us that as baptized sons and daughters of God who is the Father of mercy and all consolation, that we are each filled with goodness and with truth; and vision of life: life in abundance here below, and a vision of life that continues even after death.
If any of you had the chance to read some of the poster boards in the Fireside Room, you will see that Jimmy not only believed this but lived it in such a way that others wanted to believe it, too. The gift of a robustly new and vital vision, a gift that helps another to see themselves as God sees them, a gift that helps us believe the suffering and questions of life down here are worth something; I cannot think of a more courteous, merciful, truly enduring gift than that.
In our faith, we speak of one more Alma Mater - indeed, during Advent we sing a special hymn to her under the title Alma Redemptoris Mater - the Loving, Nurturing Mother of the Redeemer: Our Lady of the Visitation, the Blessed Virgin Mary.
St. Ignatius of Loyola, whose spirituality and vision of life has shaped three generations of the Monahan and Gracey families, put devotion to Our Lady at the very center of his life. In the very earliest days of the Society of Jesus, Ignatius spent three days in prayer before the statue of the Virgin of Montserrat, located, providentially, just one hour from Barcelona. At the end of his three days there, Ignatius - who had been determined to continue his life as a solider - felt called by Mary to lay down his sword there in front of that statue and to give his life to Jesus, entrusting himself always to her intercession.
Ignatius would later write: “It does not matter how much you love Mary; for Mary will always love you more. The one who is devoted to the Virgin Mother will certainly never be lost.”
When we received the heartwrenching news, just 11 days ago, can I share with you the very first thing I thought of?
Hail Mary, full of grace the Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women,
and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us sinners,
now and at the hour of our death.
Now, and at the hour of our death.
This means that if Jimmy ever prayed the Hail Mary, which of course he did, he asked Our Lady to be with him both in his life and at the hour of his death. “The one who is devoted to the Virgin Mother will certainly never be lost.” So may we find consolation in our faith, which tells us: she was there, she was with him, she took Jimmy by the hand and led him straight into the house of the Father, where he could be at rest and where he could be free.
Let’s allow those words that moved Jimmy in his prayer echo in our hearts tonight, and forever:
“What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
“If the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit that dwells in you.
“Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Amen.
