Brother Luke Salm, FSC

1921-2009

Remarks at Funeral by Brother William Mann, FSC

In my last conversation with Luke in June…as we said goodbye…with a twinkle in his eye…he recalled our teary farewell of a few years ago when, while serving as Vicar General in Rome, I had flown to New York prior to the surgery from which Luke didn’t think he’d survive…arriving at his hospital bed on the evening before the operation…to say not so much farewell…but thank you…thanks to a friend and brother…an inspiration and icon…for all he had been to me personally…but thanks, also, as Vicar General, in the name of the whole Institute…for the enormous contribution he had made…for the remarkable gifts he had shared…for the countless lives he had touched…not only here in the portion of God’s kingdom known as Manhattan College, but in the Institute and Lasallian Family in North America and all around the world.

For me, a heart-breaking but grace-filled hospital visit…where I had the privilege in the name of all Lasallians to thank in a personal way one of the Lasallian giants of the second half of the twentieth-century. This delightfully human, dynamic life-force and vital protagonist in the awesome theological and catechetical renewal of the 1960s and in most, if not all, of the principal Lasallian events and issues of our day.
Not only for his participation in four General Chapters…a most uncommon occurrence…sent as a gifted representative of the New York District…but to have actually been…at the General Chapter of 1966-1967… a key and significant player in crafting the Declaration of the Brother of the Christian Schools in the World Today…often joking in later years that his most significant contribution was in getting the late great Brother Michel Sauvage of France to draft a document that was shorter by hundreds of pages than anything else that Michel had ever written.

Not only as someone who, after the General Chapter of 1986, shared with so many of us insights into our new Rule…but also as one who had served on the Commission that actually wrote it…contributing theological expertise and Lasallian insight to its sometimes lyrical final version…
A man for the ages…who attempted to help the Brothers around the world to re-vision and re-capture…the passion of the Lasallian origins…so that “our world so secular and broken” might glimpse Christ alive in us and, hopefully, “fall in love with God again.”

It is my honor and privilege to give voice today to the gratitude of many…for this man who now “shines like the stars”…shines both in the eternal presence of God and in the hearts of those “who will eternally bear witness to the great gratitude we have” for having been blessed and privileged to bask in his delightful presence.

How fitting it is that the gospel of the Good Shepherd was chosen for our liturgy today…in remembrance of the life of a man…who across continents and cultures and generations…by word and deed…in faith and zeal…strove to reach out and draw together…to welcome and include…such disparate and varied elements in our Church and our Lasallian world.

However, I’d like to propose an additional or alternative…less pastoral…more contemporary…image to capture the spirit of Luke…one borrowed from theologian Michael Himes…who recently proposed to a group of university professors “an image of the intellectual tradition of humanity [at our colleges and universities] as a cocktail party where every teacher works as a host, inviting new and perhaps uncomfortable guests to come and mingle with history’s greatest minds and most generous souls. ‘We have the privilege,’ he reminded the participants, ‘of helping others to love what we fell in love with ourselves.’”

Imagining Luke…disciple and follower of the Good Shepherd, who sought out and welcomed in…by working the crowd as teacher or as host at a cocktail party resonates with me. Luke as brother…theologian…professor…friend…residence hall prefect…inviting and entertaining…engaging and drawing out…introducing others…helping us love…what he fell in love with himself…being fully and joyfully alive…sharing his passion for teaching and scholarship…for theology and brotherhood…for words and for the Word…for our Founder, the Declaration, the Rule…for being a Lasallian…and a Brother…“some for now and some forever.”

I used to think Luke did what he did in addition to his work as College teacher and professor of theology…but I came later to realize that it was precisely from within his core as College teacher and theologian…that his giftedness emerged.

It was not lost on him that, like John Baptist de La Salle, he was both theologian and gifted writer and that they shared the gifts of keen intellect, resolute tenacity, and the ability to inspire and motivate others. It was not lost on me that his theological doctoral studies and collegial experience in higher education at his beloved Manhattan College…prepared and fashioned him for the role he was called to play on the international stage.

And so today, we pause to thank his family and the Manhattan College Community for sharing their brother with the world…We thank God for the gift of this giant we now mourn…who contributed so powerfully “to the general good of the Church”…to the education of so many religious and clerics…and to the formation, dignity, and empowerment of the Christian laity on college campuses and, for so many years, at the Buttimer Institute of Lasallian Studies.

And we say our final thank you to Luke himself…whose very “presence brightened everything” and whose devotion as brother, teacher, and friend inspired and taught many, not only “the road to heaven,” but the pathway toward a more full and glorious life…beginning right here in this world and continuing with God for all eternity… Safe voyage home, Luke; and God speed on the journey.

Gal 2:20.
Father Cantalamessa.
M 208.2.
Jn 10:11-18.
America, 6-13 July 2009.
Brother Charles Kitson.
M 208.3.
John O’Donohue, “To Bless the Space between Us.”
M 208.3.
Jn 10:10.