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This is the eulogy delivered by the Reverend Richard A.Lord, Rector, The Church of the Holy Comforter, during the funeral services for Taylor Behl. You may visit the parish website where this is posted.
A Homily for Taylor Behl
This week I've carried the sorrow and outrage of the Taylor Behl family on my heart in prepration for her funeral which occured yesterday at Church of the Holy Comforter. Close to 800 people packed into our sanctuary, chapel, and narthex to offer their sad goodbyes and to remember Taylor as much more than a student murdered in the prime of her life.Under a late morning drizzle, we gathered in this sacred space, to grieve and to give thanks for Taylor's unique life, and to affirm our conviction that love is stronger than death. Here are a few excerpts from my homily:I want to say to Taylor’s parents, Janet and Matt, and to your entire extended family, that our hearts draw near to you today. We have come together as a community in great sorrow, for Taylor’s death has put us in touch with the bonds of our common humanity. That is why so many of us have gathered in this sacred space. As the poet John Donne wrote, "Anyone’s death diminishes me; because I am involved with humanity." The journey of grief puts us in touch with a universal longing of the human heart, a longing for something more, a longing to make sense of the life we live, a longing to know that death will not have the final word.There is lurking in the back of our minds a very common and yet difficult question. If there is a God who has brought this world into being, does this God care? Perhaps the biggest obstacle to faith is simply the way the world is. It is beautiful and it is fruitful, but it also terrifying and dreadful things happen to innocent people. We believe that God did not create a "ready made world," but one that is allowed to become itself, and that human beings share in this foundational creative freedom. We cherish that freedom, but with it comes a darker possibility. For there are those who selfishly choose to misuse their freedom, and the innocent suffer. "Why is this happening to me?" we ask, or "Why is this happening to someone I love?" These are entirely legitimate questions to ask. But in the end, intellectual or theological answers will only go so far. The problems of evil and suffering are not intellectual problems but deep existential problems.But I do have a particular insight to offer that has been helpful me in my own journey and ministry with others on the road of grief. It is an insight that in some sense enables the possibility of belief in God and that God is not simply an impartial spectator looking down on this strange and suffering world. The Christian faith holds that God is a fellow sufferer, a fellow participant in the agony of creation. God has chosen to join the human journey. In Christ, God shares our human nature. He lives and dies as one of us. We witness the darkness and paradox of the Cross and we hear from the lips of the crucified a desperate cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Such a cry reveals that God knows human suffering from the inside of creation and not simply from the outside. But even more significant -- in a way we cannot yet fully understand, God in Christ took our human nature through the experience we call death, and showed us that beyond death there is a risen life, an eternal kind of life that death cannot destroy. If we matter to God in this life, and we do, then we must matter to God forever. If Taylor mattered to God in this life, and she did, then Taylor must matter to God forever.I was honored to preside at Taylor's funeral and grateful for the uncondtional hospitality our congregation offered her family and the wider community of Vienna. In the midst of this unimaginable loss, death did not have the final word.
The links below are to the major network news and the stations in the area providing full coverage of Taylor's Case. These are the major source of the information provided on this site. Also included are links to the various Weblogs and other sites of interest.
Local Broadcast News
WVEC 13 NEWS ABC
WRC NBC4 News
WWBT NBC12 News
WRIC TV8 News - ABC
WAVY NBC 10 News
WTOP Radio Network News
WJLA ABC7 News
WTVR CBS 6 News
Local Print News
Hampton Roads Daily Press
Richmond Times-Dispatch
The Washington Post
Glocester-Mathews Gazette-JournalNational News
FOX News
ABC News
NBC News
CBS News
MSNBC NewsWeblogs & Other Web Sites
Riehl World View - An Excellent Weblog w/Total Coverage from the Beginning
The Dark Side - A True Weblog With Excellent Coverage & Insights
Court TV's Crime Library - Full Coverage & BLOGS
Slobokan's Site O' Schtuff - A Weblog Covering Taylor's Case
Scared Monkeys - A Weblog Covering Taylor Behl's Case
Observations of a Misfit - A Weblog Covering Taylor Behl's Case
Missing & Abducted - Real Talk About Disappearnces / Taylor Behl's Coverage
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