Funeral, Eulogy, and Memorial Talks

FUNERAL ADDRESS FOR CHARLES L. CARGILE

[Talk given by John E. Enslen at the Prattville Ward Chapel of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on February 10, 2004.]

I am truly thankful to Charles Leonard, also affectionately known as “Charlie,” and his faithful wife, Pat, of 33 years for the distinct honor of speaking today. I pray especially that Pat may be comforted by my remarks. No matter how well we may know the inevitability of the forthcoming death of a loved one, we cannot fully prepare for its impact. There is still a powerful emotional trauma to face.

Brother Newton and Brother Stevens have certainly paid fitting tribute to Charlie. We all have our own wonderful Charles Leonard stories to tell and remember. I wish to add a little more to one aspect of his personal and church life.

Since 1986, Charlie has personally known and assisted in some way with his time, energy, and resources, well over 1,000 full-time missionaries of this church, young men 19 and 20 years old who have delayed their educational and marital plans so that they can serve two years at their own expense wherever they are assigned to labor. When I met with our funeral director Alfred Cook to assist with funeral arrangements, I asked Alfred if he knew Charlie. Alfred replied: “There was a time where I could set my clock by the arrival of Charlie to pick up the two young boys at their apartment across the street from our funeral home.”

Because of Charlie’s association with these young elders of our church, and because the Prattville congregation has many military service men and women passing through, Charlie’s influence reaches far beyond Prattville, Millbrook, and Wetumpka, Alabama. As the news of Charlie’s death continues to spread, it is no exaggeration that we are receiving many communications from throughout the world which honor him.

If you look to our six pall bearers, you will see the three sets of young men that just happened to be already serving in Prattville, Millbrook, and Wetumpka when Charlie passed. These six elders are demographically typical of those who have passed through this area. They are natives of two countries, the United States and Canada, and five different states. Their home towns are:

Temecula, California; Olympia, Washington; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Boise, Idaho; Heber City, Utah and Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

And that is one of the reasons Charlie is known all over the world.

The Nature of Our Beings

A. Our Physical Bodies

Now, I would like to turn to the gospel message that Charlie requested that I deliver, and he told me not to stutter.

Each of us is composed of two separate and distinctly different parts. One of those parts is our physical body. That’s the part of us that we can touch. It’s the flesh-and-bones part of us. It’s our tabernacle of clay which is composed of the same elements that we find in the dust of the earth. It’s the part of us that, over time, becomes old and weak and worn out. Our physical body is a temporary possession which has been given us for our short time here on planet earth.

B. Our Spiritual Bodies

There is another part of us. It is not a mere temporary possession. It is the eternal part of us. Each of us is a spirit person. Our spirit person in housed within our physical bodies, thus making our physical bodies the temples of our spirits. As Paul declared, “Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?” (I Corinthians 3:16

Like our physical bodies, our spirits or spirit bodies, are also in the form of a person. Like each of our distinctly different physical bodies, each spirit person has his or her own special and unique personality. But unlike our physical body which comes from elements of the earth, our spirit body comes directly from God who is the father of our spirits. Our reference to one another as “brothers and sisters” and to God as “Our Heavenly Father” is very literal. We are all children of the same Father in Heaven, the title He selected for Himself. Man is of divine origin. In referring to God, the author of the Book of Acts stated, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; for we are also his offspring.” (Acts 17:28)

It is the spirit person within us that gives our physical bodies life and movement and animation. It is the spirit part of us that possesses intelligence—the ability to learn, think, reason, and make deliberate decisions.

A spirit person’s identity is eternal. We have always been and will always be the same person that we are now, although we have the opportunity and privilege to improve on our character over time by repenting and then remaining true to proper choices.

We each lived as spirit children with our Heavenly Father before we came to this earth. Just as the Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah: “Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee, and before thou camest out the womb I sanctified thee…” (Jeremiah 1:4-5) As Jesus told Nicodemus: “No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven…” (John 3:13)

Although we all once lived with, and in the presence of, our Father in Heaven, the knowledge of our pre-earth life is withheld from us at birth so that in this mortal condition we can learn to walk by faith instead of memory. Our inability to remember our pre-earth life with Heavenly Father allows our faith to be tested. Hopefully, we are taking advantage of this time on earth to increase our faith and thus our ability to control our appetites, desires, and passions so that they are exercised within the bounds that the Lord has set to insure our happiness. One of the great challenges of mortality is to continually remind ourselves that we are not permanent human beings who occasionally have eternal-like spiritual experiences, but rather we are eternal spiritual beings who are having a temporary human experience. The angels of heaven mourn for the new born thrust to earth, but rejoice at his later release through death. On the other hand, as mortals we rejoice for the new born and then mourn at his later passing.

C. Death

Understanding the nature of our being helps us to understand death. Death is the separation of our spirit person from our physical body. Death occurs when the body “gives up the ghost” or gives up the spirit person that lives within it. Artificially produced heartbeats or brainwaves do not sustain life unless the spirit remains in the body. Mortal life exists as we know it when the body is quickened by the spirit. Heavenly Father is the God of both the quick, meaning the living, and the dead, for he is still the God and Father of his spirit children whether we be in the body or out of the body. (See II Corinthians 12:3) Only God has control over the timeliness of the spirit’s departure. In Ecclesiastes we read, “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7) God is the all wise giver and taker of life. There is among us here today the next person who will die, the next person whose funeral we will attend, and not a single one of us can say with the least assurance that it will not be me.

Death is inescapable. It is universal. It comes to all of us. “For as in Adam, all die…” (I Corinthians 15:22) Our response to death, like our response to life, varies with our knowledge and faith. When we come to understand God’s plan of happiness for each of us, then we know that death is as indispensable to our eternal development as mortal life itself. Death is actually one of Heavenly Father’s many merciful provisions for his children. Death is a necessary end to mortality and a necessary beginning of immortality in preparation for the resurrection. Death will be seen as kind and right when we view it from the perspective of eternity. It is life and death that provides the means for obtaining a resurrected body. A spirit person cannot have a perfect, immortal, resurrected body of incorruptible flesh and bones, totally free from speech impediments and other maladies, without first taking on an imperfect, mortal, unresurrected body of corruptible flesh and bones and blood.

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

What is the resurrection? It is the uniting of our spirit person with a perfect physical body, a physical body that doesn’t get tired or sick, or hurt or ache, or get old or deteriorate or die again.

We could never, worlds without end, from eternity to eternity, be able to resurrect ourselves. The power is not within us to do such. Without Jesus, there would be no resurrection, and our spirits would remain without a body forever. Without a body, we could never be like Jesus who has a glorified immortal resurrected body. Without a body, there could never be a fullness of joy.

But because of the love and kindness and mercy of God, we will all be resurrected. None of us will be able to prevent being resurrected any more than we can prevent our own death. Neither death nor the resurrection is a product of our choice in this life. Both the “just and unjust” will be resurrected (Acts 24:15), and in that very same order. (I Thes. 4:16; Rev. 20:6) “For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the first fruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.” (I Corinthians 15:21-23)

The resurrection is free. It is a gift. It is not earned. It comes by grace.

As the literal begotten Son of God, Jesus Christ had power over death, and because of him, death has no sting. (See 1 Corinthians 15:55) Jesus explained, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again. This commandment I have received of my Father.” (John 10:17-18)

In the week preceding his crucifixion, the Savior said: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)

In the end, because of Christ, the only thing that really dies is death itself.

There is only one type of resurrection. It is the type of resurrection that Jesus Christ has provided. As the great perfect example in all other aspects of his life, so it is with the resurrection. The scriptures record with specific detail the tangible, physical, flesh-covered nature of the Savior’s resurrected body as he appeared to his apostles: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself; handle me and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.” (Luke 24:39)

Christ has not died again, but He lives as a glorified resurrected being, and our resurrection shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. (Romans 6:5) (See 1 John 3:2) As Job powerfully declared with a sense of certainty, “And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19:26)

The resurrection deals with the quantity of life we shall have, but not the quality of life we shall enjoy in the hereafter. The fact that we will all be resurrected and live forever does not guarantee that all of us will inherit the celestial kingdom. The celestial kingdom is not free to every man as a matter of grace. After our spirits have been united with our resurrected bodies, we will each stand before the judgment bar of God to be judged. As a result of this judgment, we will be assigned by a just and perfect and all-knowing God to a quality of life that perfectly matches our demonstrated ability to keep the commandments of God. (See 1 Corinthians 15:41-42)

In referring to the final judgment, the apostle John records in Revelation 20:12:

“And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.”

“Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:28-29)

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