Eulogy for Elmer Maas
by Anne Montgomery

Like the men and women who tried, yet feared to follow the Way, we are joined together in prayer in the face of what a Guatemalan poet calls the “terror of resurrection,” a mystery which calls us to risk freedom from our plans, securities, and even the loss of a loved one.

I hope I can speak for the Kairos Community. “Kairos,” as Ned Murphy explained at our founding, is a time of crisis and opportunity, a moment of stillness in which we can accept the power of the Spirit of Christ, see reality “as if for the first time,” and choose our response.

We can see a person fulfilled, spirit-filled, risen and joyous, transformed in the midst of an ongoing work which he, the perfectionist, had considered incomplete. But God's call to perfection is a call to integrity: integrity of vision, of living that vision, and of sharing it in community, the only way to enflesh the Word.

Kairos was Elmer 's New York community, and he was and is at its heart. He kept us consistently aware of present and future crises and their opportunities, but he also treasured memories, told stories, and I am sure he is regaling the heavenly host with many we will share tonight.

What would he share tonight? I suggest a few:

- of moving boxes of books, which mysteriously multiplied until they filled every corner, from office space to space and finally to his apartment where they grew into the Plowshares archives, blossoming into his curriculum

- of leafleting at Riverside Research Institute and blocking its door with many here and elsewhere

- of hours in police vans and precincts, usually one of the faithful arresties until his health decreed otherwise, but then insisting on waiting in the street in any weather for those released

- of coordinating with the Catholic Worker and others in walk after walk from the United Nations to the Intrepid museum of horrors

- of going forth from Kairos on endless trips in his “Volvolito” – which itself resisted on occasion, collapsed, but recovered to carry him from Maine to Florida in support of Plowshares actions

- of faithful attendance at meetings, always remembering those in prison and calling us by words and his very presence to focus on the heart of the matter, the reason for their sacrifice.

Today, in community, we re-member Elmer, gather in his spirit, call each other to continue his legacy, the same as Phil Berrigan's, whose mind and heart he shared. My image is of Phil 's arms outstretched, like the One who did not turn away from the final journey to Jerusalem and beyond, welcoming him. Elmer, you kept faith; now, in joy, you see.

-