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Funeral Service for Nancy Reagan. Aired 15-15:30p ET

Aired March 11, 2016 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[15:00:01]

RON REAGAN, SON OF NANCY REAGAN: So, he handed her a bucket of paint and a brush.

(LAUGHTER)

REAGAN: And my mother painted a mile's worth of fence, every post, every plank, both sides, once.

(LAUGHTER)

REAGAN: That was -- that paint job lasted for the duration.

Now, my father was confident, but he was not an arrogant man at all. And it takes a great deal of chutzpah to run for president of the United States or even governor of California, for that matter. And her absolute belief in him gave him that chutzpah to run for office. I don't know that he would have done it otherwise.

My mother provided the encouragement he needed. She guided him. She provided a refuge into which he could repair to gather his strength. She guarded his privacy. She protected him.

Both possessed great individual talents, but, as a couple, they were more than the sum of their parts. And it would be a mistake, by the way, to consider her has somehow subordinate to her because just he was the one usually taking center stage. They were co-equals. They complemented one another.

Individually, they may have gone far, but, together, they could and did go anywhere.

My father was inclined to believe that everyone was basically good, and that certainly anyone who worked for him was pure of heart and could never be nursing a private agenda. My mother didn't share that inclination.

(LAUGHTER)

REAGAN: And she didn't have that luxury.

In my mother's world, you were either helpful to her husband or you were not, and I think we all know what side of the equation you would want to be on. Since we're among friends, I think we can admit that she was not

always the easiest person to deal with. She could be difficult. She could be demanding. She could be a bit obsessive. Truly, she could a royal pain in the ass when she wanted to be, but usually only so that my father didn't have to be.

You didn't want to get on mom's bad side, particularly by hurting her husband. If you did that, you had earned yourself an implacable foe. If you happen to run into the ghost of Don Regan sometime, you can just ask him.

(LAUGHTER)

REAGAN: On the other hand, on the other hand, you couldn't ask for a more loyal or dedicated friend.

Just ask Joan Rivers, should you run into her in the hereafter. When Joan's husband died, he was on the East Coast, and Joan could not -- for some reason, could not get the coroner to release his body so he could come home to the West Coast.

Joan's a comedian. She didn't know who to call. Who do you call to pull strings like this to get something like that down? Well, she acquainted with my mother, but they weren't great friends yet. Nevertheless, she bucked up her courage and called the White House and got my mother on the phone.

Joan's husband's body was on the next plane out of town to the West Coast. And Joan became my mother's buddy for the rest of her life.

I see the faces of many friends here today, people who have known and loved my mother for years, but most of my mother's buddies are gone now. She is among the last of her old cohort, the old gang, her generation, and now she is truly with them.

If my mother had one great talent, I think it was that she knew how to love, and she loved one man more than the world. In her later years, after my father had gone, she used to ask me whether I thought she would be with him again when she died.

I'm not a believer in the supernatural, but I always assured her that wherever dad had gone, she was surely going to go there, too.

We should all be so lucky to stand up where we have also wanted to be, and today my mother comes to rest on this lovely hilltop with its far- reaching views, next to her beloved Ronald Reagan Library.

And, by the way, from here, she will be able to keep an eye on things. Just saying. No slacking.

(LAUGHTER)

REAGAN: How long will it be before tales begin to emerge of the petite Chanel-clad spirit roaming the galleries and halls, just checking to make sure things are running smoothly?

(LAUGHTER)

[15:05:03]

REAGAN: But, most importantly, she will once again lay down beside the man who was the love of her life, the one she loved until the end of her days.

They will watch the sun drop over the hills in the west toward the sea, and, as night falls, they will look out across the valley. My father will tell her that the lights below are her jewels. The moon and stars will endlessly turn overhead, and here they will stay, as they always wished it to be, resting in each other's arms, only each other's arms, until the end of time.

(MUSIC)

[15:10:03]

REV. STUART KENWORTHY, WASHINGTON NATIONAL CATHEDRAL: Let us pray.

God of grace and glory, we remember before you this day our sister Nancy. We thank you for giving her to us, her family and friends, to know and to love as a companion as on our earthly pilgrimage.

Give us faith to see in death the gate of eternal life, so that in quiet confidence, we may continue our course on earth, until, by your call, we are reunited with those who have gone before. Amen.

Would you please be seated?

Today, we are exactly where we ought to be, standing with this family, and one another, before the mystery of life and death, say in our prayers, and farewell to Nancy Davis Reagan.

The great 20th century Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel once asked, what is the most important thing that a religious person can do? His answer was given in one word: Remember.

That is precisely what we do this day. This is what we do as religious people every time we gather. We hear again and again the stories of encountering God, ancient and cherished, stories that point to God as ineffable mystery, yet still revealed to our fragile and mortal humanity.

We remember God's saving love for the human race and family, and in that act of remembering, the God of life and giver of every good gift is present to us. And these moments that I speak to you, it is really for one purpose, to gather all the remembrances that you have just heard, those that you carry in your hearts, those of the people of our nation, and the world, and to remind you where to place them all, before the living God, who gave Nancy life from the first, and who now receives it back again.

Who is this God? This is the one who raised up Israel, out of bondage in Egypt, fulfilling ancient promises and who raised up Jesus from the dead into resurrection life. The God in whose presence we gather today and to whom we commend the life and soul of Nancy is a God of justice who wants to lift up the poor, the vulnerable, and all on the margins of life, a God of love who wants you to know that, in every circumstance of life, that you are beloved, precious, sacred, just because you are you.

This is a God who loves fiercely, who traffics in life and death, and is encountered in every dimension of life, beautiful and complex. Nancy knew of this. She knew it because she lived it.

In November of 2014, I was invited to meet Mrs. Reagan at her home. There were four of us, Mrs. Reagan, and two of her dear friends, Robert Higdon and Peggy Noonan. We entered her bedroom where Mrs. Reagan, dressed comfortably and with a quiet elegance, was partly reclined upon her bed.

We were there over an hour. I mostly listened as the three of them told stories from the White House years and beyond, some dramatic, some hilarious, and others that caused us to fall into a companionable silence.

Turning to all the photographs on her bedside table, I asked about several of them, and one by one, she looked at them and spoke of places and events over long years.

Finally, I picked up the one closest to her. It was worn and creased, overrunning its slightly weathered simple plastic frame.

"What about this one, Mrs. Reagan?"

She held it in silence. And turning to me, she said, "This one is my favorite."

The photo was of President Reagan, who had begun his descent into Alzheimer's. He too was mostly reclined. The angle of the photo was of their profiles. Nancy was hovering just above him, their faces very near one another, nose to nose, eyes to eyes.

It showed a deep and tender intimacy, even through the fog of his illness. Of all the photos, this was her favorite. She kept looking at it, seemingly transported to another place.

I said, "Mrs. Reagan, that's a picture of you living out the promises of your marriage in fidelity and love."

[15:15:03]

After a brief silence she said, "Yes, it is," and handed it back to be placed on the table nearest to her.

Poet Henry van Dyke has written, "Time is too slow for those who wait, too swift for those who fear, too long for those who grieve, too short for those who rejoice, but for those who love, time is eternity."

Nancy Reagan glimpsed that truth. She and her beloved Ronnie shared a great love, a very great love that is legendary and could instruct us all, and now she knows that eternity is about so much more than time, for it is about fulfillment and completion and, so important for Nancy, reunion, as she is joined with her beloved Ronnie.

So, lastly, as we give thanks for the life of Nancy Reagan, I want to speak of an even greater love. Its one we know as Christians, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, climaxing at that first Easter.

Each Gospel tells of it differently, ironically, undergirding the veracity, in providing a stereoscopic view of a truth, unparalleled in all of literature and life.

The events of Holy Week leading to Jesus' death sent his closest disciples into fearful hiding and finally brought strong women to his tomb in the dark of that first Easter dawn. There, God had acted. A cosmos-altering explosion of divine light and life was released, surging at God's command, breaking the three-day canopy of silence.

There, Jesus rises from death to new life, and all creation rises with him. In a newly beheld radiance that is without analogy in the risen Christ, death is defeated, vanquished forever.

God raised Jesus, that you and I might share in his resurrection. It is true. We are raised with him, as is Nancy, who now stands on another shore, and in a greater light, with that multitude of saints that no mortal can number.

In our last visit with Mrs. Reagan, I asked at the end to be alone with her.

We spoke for a few moments, and then we prayed, giving thanks for life, for the loves that God has brought to us, and for strength and grace for the days ahead.

Now, we all read things, but I have made a life of trying to read human hearts. In those last moments with Nancy, she was at peace, as if she were already leaning into heaven. And now she has, fallen asleep, and awakened in the heart of God.

Now she knows intimately of what the 17th century Anglican priest and poet John Donne wrote in these closing words: "Bring us, oh, lord God, at our last awakening into the household and gate of heaven, to enter into that gate and dwell in that house, where there shall be no darkness, nor dazzling, but one equal light, no noise, nor silence, but one equal music, no fears, no hopes, but one equal possession, no ends, nor beginnings, but one equal eternity. In the habitation of that glory and dominion, world without end. Amen."

Nancy, dear Nancy, may you gaze upon our lord face-to-face. May angels surround you, and saints welcome you in peace. And may your heart and soul now ring out in joy, to the living God in whose presence you are held forever.

[15:20:17]

Amen.

CONGREGATION: Amen. KENWORTHY: And now let us all join today in praying that which our

lord has taught us, saying, our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive ours trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

In peace, we pray to you, lord God, almighty God, who has knit together thine elect and one communion in fellowship in the mystical body of thy son, Christ our lord. Grant, we beseech thee, to thy whole church in paradise, on earth, thy light and thy peace. Amen.

Grant that all who have been baptized into Christ's death and resurrection may die to sin and rise to newness of life that through the grave and gate of death, we may pass with him to our joyful resurrection.

Amen.

Grant to us who are still in our earthly pilgrimage, and who walk as yet by faith, that thy Holy Spirit may lead us in holiness and righteousness all our days.

Amen.

Grant to thy faithful people pardon and peace, that we may be cleansed from all our sins, and serve thee with a quiet mind.

Amen.

Grant to all who mourn a sure confidence in thy fatherly care, that, casting all their grief on thee, they may know the consolation of thy love.

Amen.

Give courage and faith to those who are bereaved, that they may have strength to meet the days ahead in the comfort of a reasonable and holy hope, in the joyful expectation of eternal life with those they love.

Help us, we pray, in the midst of things we cannot understand, to believe and trust in the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, and the resurrection to life everlasting. Grant us grace to entrust Nancy to thy never-failing love, receive him into the arms of thy mercy, and remember him according to the favor which thou bearest unto thy people.

Grant that, increasing in knowledge and love of thee, she may go from strength to strength in the life of perfect service in thy heavenly kingdom.

Grant us, with all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, to have our consummation and bliss in thy eternal and everlasting glory, and, with all thy saints, to receive the crown of life, which thou dost promise to all who share in the victory of thy son, Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.

Would you please raise for the commendation?

Give rest, oh, Christ, to thy servant with thy saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing, but life everlasting. Thou only art immortal, the creator and maker of mankind, and we are mortal formed of the earth, and unto earth shall we return, for so thou didst ordain, when thou created me saying, dust thou art unto dust shalt thou return.

All we go down to the dust, yet even at the grave, we make our song hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.

Give rest, oh, Christ, to thy servant with thy saints, where sorrow and pain are no more, neither sighing but life.

Into thy hands, oh, merciful savior, we commend thy child and servant, Nancy. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech thee, sheep of thine own fold, a lamb of thine own flock, a sinner of thine own redeeming, receive her into the arms of thy mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light.

Amen.

The blessing of God almighty, the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you and all beloved to you this day and forever more.

[15:25:05]

Amen.

(MUSIC)