RASERO Ermanno (Father)

‘You have been faithful in little things...
come and share the joy of your master.’

Dear Fr Ermanno, you have died peacefully just as you have lived: without disturbing anybody. You have fallen asleep and awakened in the house of the Lord.

Paraphrasing what St. Paul says to his disciple Timothy (2Th, 4: 6-7;17-18): 'the moment of your departure has come. You too have fought the good battle of God, you have kept your faith and now you have  finished your race... The Lord was at your side, giving you the strength to bring the Gospel to the people you met; and now the Lord has delivered you from all evil and brought you safely to his Kingdom.'

Following in the footsteps of our Founder Saint Michael Garicoits, you always said the Lord: ‘Here I am, Lord, I come to do your will, readily, unreservedly, irrevocably, out of love’. You were ready to go wherever the will of God - expressed through your superiors - would send you.

All loved you because you made yourself loved. We never saw you angry; you were always calm, sometimes smiling, obliging to everyone. You were always ready to push a wheelchair and to give a glass of water to a person who was thirsty. You would ask about our brothers who were sick, reminiscing about so many things of the past with a nod or a smile.

You will always be in our minds and in our hearts. Jesus thanked the Father for revealing to the little ones his love and his mercy (see Mt 11: 25- 30). We too want to give thanks to the Father, the Lord of heaven and earth, because he has revealed to you his love and his mercy. You have been a generous, unassuming, meek and humble person like the Sacred Heart of Jesus, our model, and we want to thank the Lord for this.

We are sure that, when presenting yourself in front fo the good Lord, you have heard him say: ‘Well done, good and faithful servant, since you have been faithful in little things... come and share the joy of your master’ (Mt 25,23). You are now with your loved ones and our confreres in the Father’s house: be our help and our protection. Thank you for the good you have sown on this earth. Farewell, brother.

Alessandro Paniga scj