Deaths - Message from his wife

It is with deep emotion that we learn of the death on January 21, 2022 at the age of 90 of our comrade

Xavier Baudon de Mony Colchen
Maslacq 1941 - 1947
HEC 55, brother of Gérard Oblat de l'abbaye du Barroux
Chevalier de l'ordre de Saint-Grégoire-le-Grand

Below you'll find a beautiful sermon by his son, Abbé Louis Baudon de Mony Colchen of the Fraternité sacerdotale Saint-Pierre.

AERN offers his wife, his six children, his twenty-three grandchildren and his nine great-grandchildren its most sincere condolences.

Sermon for the funeral of dad,
Xavier Baudon de Mony Colchen
Saint Eugène-Sainte Cécile
January 26, 2022

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

"Receive this light. Keep without fail the grace of your baptism. Keep God's commandments, so that when the Lord comes for the eternal wedding, you can go to meet Him with all the saints in the heavenly court, and live forever and ever. "

Dear Dad. These are the words a humble priest spoke to you on the day of your baptism almost 90 years ago. He gave you an appointment at the end of that passage, and that appointment, today, has arrived! What have you done with the grace of baptism, what have you done with your baptismal promises to renounce Satan and cleave ever to Jesus Christ, faithful to His Church?

After receiving the natural, mortal life of your parents, you received the supernatural life of God, who made you share in His life, the divine, immortal life, on the day of your baptism. The priest then asked you: "Xavier, what are you asking of God's Church? "And you answered in the voice of your godfather and godmother: "Faith! "Then the priest asked you: "What does Faith give you? "Answer: "Eternal life! "He then told you: "If you want to obtain eternal life, keep the commandments: you shall love the Lord with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. "

What a striking shortcut in the sacrament of baptism, where, in giving divine life to a baby, we speak to him of his death! And where earthly life is evoked only in relation to the greatest of commandments, that of Charity.

You have now entered eternal life. There's no doubt that you've taken your baptism very seriously. Eternal life?

You've dreamed of it all your life. The land didn't interest you. Your father's death, when you were just 18, surely had something to do with it.

Many material possessions have been given to you, many have been taken from you, all of which have never been the treasure of your life, because that was not your heart.

The heart of your life can be summed up in 5 words: Faith, truth, righteousness, loyalty and transmission.

This faith you received at your baptism, a sine qua non for entry to the wedding feast, you kept all your life, and it was at the heart of your life. How did you keep it? First of all, thanks to the teachers who nurtured your intelligence and for whom Faith was the priority: André Charlier, director of Les Roches in Maslacq, later your spiritual director Father de Chivré, a Dominican, your childhood friend Dom Gérard Calvet, future founder of theabbaye du Barroux and also Jean Madiran, your philosophy teacher and founder of the magazine Itinéraires, to which you were a subscriber from the first to the last issue!

Like these masters, and following in their footsteps, you made radical choices, as radical as the Gospel, far from fashions and the world you never tried to please and even hated. The proof of this is the phrase you tirelessly repeated at home, which still rings in our ears: "Only dead dogs go with the flow! "So you were criticized by the people of the world, but so loved and admired by the simple folk for whom you were a model, an example and therefore a father. A number of them are here, and they are as dear to us as you are to them.

Faith is inseparable from truth, since the one who said: "I am THE Truth" is Jesus Christ, the object of our Faith! To have Faith in JC is to always seek the truth. Whatever we say today, there is a truth about God, about man and about human destiny. And we must never compromise with it. Everything else is poppycock, as you like to say! And the poppycock was always brushed aside with a hand gesture that spoke volumes.

But to reach the truth, to grasp it, you need this innocence of heart, this purity of heart, this uprightness of intention, and you possessed them to a point that was even disarming. How many people have harmed you because they abused your righteousness, your innocence? But God, the righteous Judge, knows what it's like: you didn't seek the justice of men, you waited for that of God. From now on, you will see God, for "blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God! "(Mt 5:8)

Finally, the virtue that crowns your whole life is fidelity. While things were heating up at home, as they all too often do, you let me off the hook one day: "I may be full of faults, but I'm faithful". I kept my mouth shut and never forgot. Faithfulness to your masters, to the faith you received at your baptism, to your wife, our mother, was also the great business of your life.

And while I'm on the subject of fidelity, there's an admirable one that I'd like to mention here: fidelity to the sacrament of penance. You went to confession very regularly throughout your life. In fact, you knew that you weren't perfect (and we knew it too!) and that life consists of asking forgiveness and forgiving: this is the only possible way to be faithful and to be truly Christian. It's impossible to be a Christian without this sacrament, which reconciles us with God, with our brothers and with ourselves.

Transmission. When you live for faith and truth, innocently and faithfully, you pass it on. You did this by your example and your words. First with your mother, then with your children. Vocations have blossomed in the family, and this is indeed the fruit of transmission.

And each of your children is also working hard, thanks to you, and to the mercy of God who has chosen us as instruments in His service. This fruitfulness of your life, with Mom, is also the fruit of your crosses, of the cross...

Faith, truth, uprightness, fidelity, transmission, no trial has been able to alter this roadmap of your life, even the one, and not the least, that dates from September 13, 2015: the death of your grandson Aloys and his entry into glory.

I must also mention the virtue of Hope, which, like your faith, has always been an integral part of you. You have never lacked hope when faced with the situation of France or the Church. This is obviously the fruit of Faith! It's the certainty that God watches over our world, and that the vicissitudes of this world do not escape His Providence, which guides all things.

This Church to which you have been faithful, you have served in a very concrete way in the diocese of Meaux for decades, managing real estate in the service of this diocese.This earned you the title of Chevalier de St Grégoire le Grand, a distinction you have kept virtually secret.

You will now join Aloys. Alban, the eldest of the great-grandchildren, said you were very lucky because you're the first of us all! We pray that God will have mercy on you and welcome you with these words: "Good and faithful servant, you have been faithful in a few things, I will entrust to you many; enter into the joy of your Lord"! (Mt 25:23)

Ladies and gentlemen, I'd like to finish by addressing you all, because Daddy doesn't need any more sermons!

You too: "Keep without fail the grace of your baptism. Keep God's commandments, so that when the Lord comes for the eternal wedding, you can go to meet Him with all the saints in the heavenly court, and live for ever and ever. "In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Abbé Louis Baudon de Mony Cochen

Mrs Xavier Baudon de Mony Colchen, his wife: sbdemony@dbmail.com