Eulogy of David Little Rusk
Friends, thank you for joining my family in celebration of the life and passing into eternal life of David Little Rusk IV.
St. Paul tells us, “...to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” That
sounds like a win, win situation to me; and Dave’s soul was prepared for
either situation. For, to Dave Christ was HERE (point to heart) HERE
(point to the people) HERE (point to the tabernacle) and HERE (point to
heaven).
The good news for us Christians is that we don’t
have to die to experience Christ, but death is more like a finish line
at the end of a race. However, those of us who knew Dave must still work
through the loss of one of God’s special creations. G.K. Chesterton
once wrote, “The only way to truly love something is to realize that it
could be lost.”
On the morning of Tuesday the 4th after the
medical staff had done all they could and left the room, the machines
were turned off and the sheet was gently pulled over his head; physical
peace had finally come to a man who had suffered greatly over the period
of about nine months. The silence was both sweet and sorrowful as our
family gathered around him in tears, shocked that he was gone but
thankful his suffering was over. As I drank in the scene and I realized
that he had passed on, I knew in my heart of hearts that I truly loved
this man.
I have had the honor of being his son-in-law,
although he would leave the “in-law” part out. He treated me and
referred to me as his own son. He was a father, a mentor and a friend to
me and I will truly miss him.
When my beautiful wife asked me
to write a eulogy for her daddy, I was honored, scared and overwhelmed
at the thought of this task.
Honored, because Dave was a great man and highly respected by many people;
scared, because I knew this task involved public speaking, and you and I
know, it is easier to criticize and ignore a public speaker than it is
to be a public speaker;
and overwhelmed, because Dave touched
so many lives and was so much to so many people, how was I to go about
encompassing our experience with him and the person he was?
Then something occurred to me as I listened to the stories and
experiences of other people and that is, Dave treated everyone the same.
That is, he treated everyone with respect, dignity, reverence and
love. In light of this, I realized I could speak to my own experience
with Dave and everyone would be able to relate.
“I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives
in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
These are the
inspired words of St. Paul to the Galatian Church penned some 2,000
years ago for the purpose of guiding a group of people that was
struggling to find Christ in the midst of false doctrines and worldly
philosophies. These words were also written to Dave when about forty
years ago he finally found the name of what he was searching for among
the present day false doctrines and worldly philosophies; and that name
was Jesus Christ!
Those of us who knew Dave, knew that his
quest for Christ was second to nothing in his life. For Dave, being
close to Christ was not enough; for in order for something to be close
to something else, it must by definition remain separate. Like the old
saying goes, “close only counts in horseshoes and hand-grenades.” No,
close was not good enough for Dave, his quest was to become part of
Christ; to die to himself and live anew as Christ! I think he really
captured this concept in a poem he wrote back in 1997 entitled, “Half
Crucified”
Half Crucified
Cleanse all my darkness
Kill all my pride.
I’m hanging by one hand
Half crucified
I want to do something
With the hand that is free
But you want it nailed
To your blood-stained tree.
Cleanse all my darkness
Kill all my pride.
Pierce my hands and my feet
And even my side
I want to do nothing
With this body of sin
But to hang here and die
And arise from within.
Dave fell in love with the Body of Christ! St. Paul tells us in his
letter to the Church at Ephesus that the Church is at once the bride and
the body of Christ. Take a look at the person sitting next to you.
What do you see? A friend, family member, stranger, enemy, or just
another warm body in the pew? Dave had a gift of being able to look
into the soul of people and see Christ staring back at him. He found
value in every person.
He invited my daughters to go to work
with him one night so they could see what “Pa does” with his time. He
was an engineer at Stephen's hospital and he dealt with a lot of cool
stuff; boilers, sterilizers, ventilation systems and the like; but the
impression my daughters were left with regarding, “Pa’s work” was that
everybody knew him. He took the time to get to know everyone from the
nurses to the cooks to janitors and valued them all equally. The nurses
in labor and delivery knew him as the guy who walked out of the
elevator in scrubs with salad spoons just to brighten up their night.
He would volunteer to take the 4th of July shift so he could set up
chairs on the hospital roof and sneak employees up to watch the
fireworks. He worked hard to spread life and joy in a place that was in
desperate need of life and joy. He was an expert at the technical
aspects of his job but his co-workers remember him as being an expert at
humanity.
St. Mark records these words of our Lord Jesus,
“Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a
child shall not enter it.” Dave had a light heart filled with laughter,
play and wonder. A man able to look at God and his creation through the
eyes of a child, being content and inspired by the mystery it invokes
and asking questions about how such a thing is possible; “why God, did
you make the sky blue and frogs jumpy, and a snowflake so beautiful,
complex and unique; only to melt shortly after it’s creation?” He was
not weighed down by worldly matters but soared in a world of imagination
and wonder. Dave is the only person I know who actually passed out
because he was laughing so hard. His laughter was explosive and
contagious. We rarely saw the whites of his eyes because they were
constantly smiling and his face always looked as though it were ready to
erupt into laughter or beam radiantly with joy in an almost frightful
zeal for life.
His love of books and study was not born out
of weighty intellectualism, that is knowledge for the sake of knowledge,
but rather a light hearted inquisitive spirit, eager to see Christ,
Lord and Creator, in all things. So the character of a child is
lightness and innocence which seems to be the very character of Christ;
for our Lord tells us, “My yoke is easy and my burden is light.” So
perhaps our Lord was telling us that we need to become like him to enter
the Kingdom of heaven; and the example He gave us to follow was our
children. To Dave, becoming ‘child-like’ was to find fun in everything
and every situation, water fights (sometimes in the house), practical
jokes (the more practical the better), and living in the present moment
and loving his Lord through those around him. In fact, I can’t remember
Dave ever being down, the only complaint I heard was, “Stan, if this
sickness of my could materialize, I would kick the living...” well, some
things should not be said in church, but you get the point!
He is remembered by stories of taking his kids to the beach to see a
tidal wave; giving his young children pocket knives and teaching them to
whittle; building elaborate structures in his house so his children
could have their own rooms; putting up ridiculously large Christmas
trees while trying to maintain his Christian witness and then disposing
of the tree by feeding it inch by inch into the fireplace; befriending
those who all others had given up on and sticking with them through to
the end; books, books, and more books...speaking of books, did you know
that Dave struggled as a kid with learning how to read? I have always
likened it to Einstein flunking math! When he told me about his
struggles there was no bitterness at all. In fact, he considered it a
gift. He told me, “Stan, those who learn to read without any struggles
take it for granted; but because of my struggle, I will treat every word
I read as a gift from God.”
When Dave first fell sick in
January, he was reflecting on his life and final outcome. He shared
these words with me while I was still overseas on deployment.
Inside the Incredible
Come with me! Step across the threshold of faith, into the human soul…
…inside the incredible!
It is an entire realm belonging to the King of Kings. It is the home of God.
He is its Architect and has designed it for Himself and His Love.
It is an inner Paradise which mystically contains the Garden of Eden,
the Passover, the Path through the Red Sea, the Ark of the Covenant,
Solomon’s Temple, the womb of Mary, the Mount of the Transfiguration,
the Upper Room of the Last Supper, the Resurrection, and the Throne of
God. Our soul is where the Bride loves her Lord and they drink-in the
“Oneness” of “First Love.”
It is the Realm of Light where the
children of God bathe in the Rivers of Living Water, eat from the Tree
of Life, and embrace the Cross. From these sources (within their Lord),
they gather gold, silver, and precious stones. It is an interior
creation, comprised of spiritual ecosystems within its vast, expansive
chambers. Here are found the treasures of peace, new beginnings,
healings and…the way Home. Here is that “Promised Land” filled with
Divine graces hanging like ripened fruit from branches abiding in the
Vine, and falling as Bread from heaven. It is the most desired place in
the universe since it contains the very Presence of God.
It is
a place of unimaginable capacities…possessing the potential of entering
the Oneness of the Trinity and participating in the Love-Exchange
between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The soul is destined
to merge with Divine Life and surrender to the ecstasies of Divine Love.
Indwelled by Christ, encompassed by the Father and empowered by the
Spirit.
The dignity of the soul is staggering…it is the very Holy of Holies where God has chosen to live.
In this Castle of Honor, His Excellency has taken up residence…and
though He is infinitely pure, He rushes into even the most damaged soul
and promises His Whole Heart. The soul is the very Destination of His
Love. His Prize, His Splendid Jewel whom He has elevated from the
valleys of earth to the mountains of Heaven…inviting it to ascend with
Him, ever higher, into the Eternal Embrace of His Radiant Love!
By Dave Rusk
As I conclude I would like to leave you
with these final thoughts which are perhaps the most difficult yet
profound thoughts regarding Dave’s life. These are the words of our Lord
as recorded by St. John in his gospel during Jesus’ high priestly
prayer, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me,
that they may be one, even as we are one.” Dave realized in a profound
sense, that the body of Christ is ONE. He followed his Lord to a place
that required a tremendous sacrifice in his life. The gospels tell us
that to follow Christ we have to be willing to part with everything we
hold dear. St. Luke records a parable of Jesus’ describing the Kingdom
of heaven as being like a field with a buried treasure or a merchant
finding a great pearl and selling everything they had to obtain their
treasure. Dave had to walk away from family and friends to follow
Christ into the Catholic Church in complete obedience to him. This
broke Dave’s heart and was misunderstood by many. When Dave first
became ill he shared with me a prayer he had for his family to be united
again. He told me that God was going to answer his prayer but the cost
would be high. God did answer his prayer; Dave’s family is united; but
God took it to the next level. It occurred to me, as I watched a steady
stream of Christians walking in and out of my house from our parish and
Cederhome, setting aside their differences and working together to tend
to hurting members of the Body of Christ; and as I look around this
room I know that God truly answered Dave’s prayer, and united his
family!
Farewell my friend, our thoughts and prayers are with you as you journey into the arms of our Lord.
