51茶馆

Homily for the Funeral of 

Professor Anthony J. Saldarini  

Text: Sirach 38:34b--39:11

How different the man who devotes himself to the study of the law of the Most High! He explores the wisdom of the men of old and occupies himself with the prophecies;

He treasures the discourses of famous men, and goes to the heart of involved sayings;

He studies obscure parables, and is busied with the hidden meanings of the sages.

He is in attendance on the great, and has entrance to the ruler.

He travels among the peoples of foreign lands to learn what is good and evil among men.

His care is to seek the LORD, his Maker, to petition the Most High, To open his lips in prayer, to ask pardon for his sins. Then, if it pleases the LORD Almighty, he will be filled with the spirit of understanding; He will pour forth his words of wisdom and in prayer give thanks to the LORD,

Who will direct his knowledge and his counsel, as he meditates upon his mysteries.

He will show the wisdom of what he has learned and glory in the law of the LORD'S covenant.

Many will praise his understanding; his fame can never be effaced; Unfading will be his memory, through all generations his name will live;

Peoples will speak of his wisdom, and in assembly sing his praises.

While he lives he is one out of a thousand, and when he dies his renown will not cease.

"He seeks out the wisdom of all the ancients... He sets his heart to rise early to seek the Lord who made him." For most people here Professor Anthony Saldarini was a friend. He was my best friend. Our friendship goes back over forty years. Our friendship was founded to a very large extent on our common dedication to the study of Holy Scripture and to the world in which that Scripture was first written.

One of the readings that Tony asked to be read at his funeral was a selection from the book of Sirach, chapter 39. The author of that book was named Jesus ben Sirach, or as he is often called, Ben Sira. Ben Sira ran a school in Jerusalem in the second century B.C. At this school Ben Sira instructed young men in the traditional wisdom of the ancient Near East and in the Holy Scriptures of Israel. Ben Sira sought to hand on the tradition and at the same time to adapt that tradition to new challenges and new circumstances. Ben Sira was a teacher, and he helped his students to share in the wisdom of the past and to meet the challenges of the present and the future.

Like Ben Sira before him, our friend Tony was a teacher. He loved teaching. He loved where he taught--in the theology department at Boston College. And he loved what he taught--the Bible and its world.

Our friend Tony loved teaching. In many ways Tony came to teaching quite naturally. His father was teacher; his aunts were teachers; and his beloved wife Maureen is a teacher. Tony was very articulate and loved to talk. By nature he had a remarkable gift for rational analysis--the ability to look at all the dimensions of a problem, to break it down into its components, and to make a clear judgment or decision. And he could then explain the whole process in a clear and forceful way. Tony loved teaching, and he was a natural teacher.

Our friend Tony loved where he taught--in the theology department at Boston College. He enjoyed the challenge of working with undergraduates--opening up to them the world of the Bible, showing them how to think and to express themselves in an orderly way, and demanding that they approach their material in a thoughtful and critical way. He looked forward to working with graduate students--guiding them in their research projects, pushing them to ask hard questions, and demanding that they too look at their material in a thoughtful and critical way. Like Ben Sira before him, Tony sought to hand on the biblical tradition and to help students to see how they might bring that tradition to bear on their lives today and in the future. Teaching at Boston College was not just a job for Tony; it was his religious and intellectual vocation. The Catholic and Jesuit character of Boston College was Tony's intellectual and spiritual home, and he incarnated and handed on that tradition. Tony loved teaching at Boston College.

Our friend Tony loved what he taught. At Boston College Tony regularly taught courses on both Old and New Testaments and in the Jewish world of the New Testament. He planned his courses with care and worked hard at them. But Tony was also a very productive publishing scholar and taught people all over the world by his many books and articles. His great passion as a scholar was the Jewish world of the New Testament. He chose to study rabbinic literature at Yale University with Rabbi Judah Goldin. He wrote important books on the Sayings of the Fathers, scholastic rabbinism, the Pharisees and Sadducees, and Matthew's Gospel and Judaism, as well as many popular books and articles and scholarly reviews.

Tony's role in the study of early Judaism was very important. He was a bridge between Jewish and Christian scholars. He approached the study of Judaism with both objectivity and passion. He came to know and appreciate Judaism on its own terms, not simply as background to the New Testament. Jewish scholars trusted Tony and admired his work. Likewise, Christian scholars sought out Tony's opinions on Judaism, knowing that they would get a fair and representative assessment. As a scholar Tony was a bridge between Jews and Christians.

Like Ben Sira before him, Tony was a teacher. He loved teaching. He loved where he taught. And he loved what he taught. Like Ben Sira before him, Tony was conscious that good teachers leave a legacy. Closest to Tony is the legacy represented by his sons Daniel and Brian--two fine young men for whom he had such great hopes. May God be with them! His dear wife Maureen will soon return to teaching. The love, generosity, and care that she showed to Tony over his long illness can only be described as magnificent, heroic, and edifying. And she will surely continue to display those characteristics to her students in the years to come.

Tony taught at Boston College for twenty-five years. He was an important contributor to this university's rise to ever greater academic excellence during that period. His scholarly passion for the academic study of early Judaism was surely a step toward the wonderful center for Christian-Jewish relations at Boston College now directed by Professor Philip Cunningham and Rabbi Ruth Langer. And his many publications will be read and studied for years to come. This is a great legacy for a teacher and scholar.

But, like Ben Sira before him, all of Tony's accomplishments and all his legacy as a teacher and a scholar were in the service of the word of God. Tony did not undertake all this work in order to become famous in academic circles or to live a comfortable life. Rather, what was behind all his study and teaching was the Jewish and Christian ideal of the love of learning and the desire for God. Like Ben Sira before him, Tony loved to study--to penetrate the subtleties of parables and to seek out the hidden meanings of proverbs. Like Ben Sira before him, Tony believed with all his heart that in the study of Scripture as God's word he would find God and the wisdom of God. This is the real legacy of our friend Tony as a great teacher and scholar--the love of learning and the desire for God. May we continue to learn from him and carry on his legacy of the love of learning and the desire for God! Amen.