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On the other hand, there was sadness because Schoenstatt has suffered through his death. The Niehaus family has lost a son and brother, the Schoenstatt Fathers a brilliant thinker and highly valued confrere, and all have lost a friend, a pastor, someone who knew Schoenstatt's history so well, a highly intelligent academic, but also an extremely kind-hearted person. The book of condolences, the comments, the many hours of adoration and prayer, the Masses and personal messages bear impressive witness to the man he was.

From heaven a mission continues

His death was the subject of conversations everywhere, most of all, naturally, in the community of the Schoenstatt Fathers and the Schoenstatt Family in the United States, but not just there. Everyone had a tale to tell of how they had known Fr Jonathan, what he had said to them, and what they thought of his suffering and death. Many talked about their last meeting with Fr Jonathan, what he had said to them and what he had written. The novices of the Schoenstatt Fathers, for whom he was scheduled to conduct a time of training, related how he had written to them saying that a physical miracle would be lovely, but it wouldn't actually fit to Fr Kentenich. The actual and more important miracle is the new evangelisation passing from person to person. Fr Peter Locher took up this aspect in his sermon at the Requiem.

Perhaps it was a little bit like the days between the death of Jesus on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. The only difference is that we know that Jesus did in fact rise again on the third day. Death is the beginning of life in eternal Schoenstatt.

Quiet preparations

The preparations for the Requiem were also very practical. Central questions on such occasions are: Who will preach the sermon, who will provide the music, what would be the order of events?
The funeral was scheduled for 2 p.m. local time in Schoenstatt – 7 a.m. in Milwaukee. This made it possible for friends and relatives who could not be present in Schoenstatt to participate via schoenstatt-tv.
The novices of the Schoenstatt Fathers, along with their students and confreres who were attending a Tertianship on Mount Sion, took over the musical side. Fathers Michael Hagan and Francisco Sobral undertook the management in the background. Fr Michael Hagan was also the MC at the Requiem.
The difficult part of the sermon was taken over by Fr Peter Locher, Fr Jonathan's Novice Master and later a close associate in the last months of his life in setting up the new Sion Institute.

Between Good Friday and Easter

Already an hour before the Requiem was due to begin, Fr Jonathan was brought into the Adoration Church on Mount Schoenstatt. His course brothers carried his coffin into the Founder Chapel for a brief and private course farewell. Afterwards his coffin was placed on the altar steps where a stole, crucifix and chalice, the symbols of priesthood, had been positioned.
Some of the first people to enter the church after his course brothers were his family – his mother, brothers and one of his sisters. The Adoration Church filled gradually. The Rosary and hymns prepared the celebration of death and resurrection.
Finally about ninety priests who had gathered for the celebration filed into the church. Together with them the atmosphere of the past days between Good Friday and the expectation of Easter entered the Adoration Church. Fr Heinrich Walter, Superior General of the Schoenstatt Fathers, greeted his confreres, the family of Fr Jonathan Niehaus and the whole congregation.
Both the Mass texts and the sermon were in German. Fr Bryan Cunningham gave a simultaneous translation into English for the family, while Fr Andrew Pastore did so for those watching via schoenstatt-tv. From Johannesburg to Scotland, from Brazil to Chile, from Texas to Wisconsin, from India to Australia – they were all there.

Covenant Culture and New Evangelisation

In the last few months the Schoenstatt Family in many places in the world have been praying for a physical miracle through Fr Kentenich's intercession. So did Fr Peter Locher. He began his homily by recalling this prayer. However, the Eternal Father's plans were different. We have to submit to his will, not fatalistically, but by asking what he is aiming at.

What follows are the sermon notes made available by Fr Locher:

"When we first learned about Fr Jonathan's illness, we, the Fathers, his family and many in the Schoenstatt Family, spontaneously prayed for a miracle through Fr Kentenich's intercession. In these days I often told him:
You can't take this man from us

• He is only just 51 years old
• He has just taken up the task that one could see as his life's task
• He is someone who knows most about Fr Kentenich's written works – he has an intellectual overview, but also uses his computer and search programmes
• He is a prolific writer
• At 23 he had written his first book
• In the meantime he has 36 publications to his name, along with translations into Spanish and German, and texts of Fr Kentenich's works
• And he had further plans lined up.

I also told Fr Kentenich: If you work this miracle of healing, we will have killed two birds with one stone:

• You will have kept an important man for us, and at the same time worked the miracle needed for your beatification
• On the day Fr Jonathan died, I received an email: Now is the right time for a miracle
• Another of Fr Kentenich's hankies was placed under his pillow.

The miracle didn't happen. We can do nothing else than submit to God's will.
Yet we don't want to do this cheaply by saying, "God's will, be still!" Instead we want to ask, "Dear God, what were you thinking when you did this?" For what purpose did Fr Jonathan die? Two answers came to me. The key to these answers is to be found in the day on which he died – between 18 and 20 January.
The 20 January reminds us of Fr Kentenich's decision to go freely and willingly to the concentration camp. He gave his view of events as a reason for his decision – his conflict with National Socialism. Ultimately what mattered to him was not politics, but the battle between divine and diabolical powers.

• "Our Lord Jesus Christ did not redeem the world by his sermons and miracles, but by his death on the cross."
• "It is fitting and an honour for me to be the scapegoat in this battle."

Fr Jonathan had a very solid and distinctive inner life – a fruit of the family in which he had grown up.

• However, his spiritual life was also marked by a special perception of the divine and diabolical. He had experienced that in struggling for the salvation of others, he simply drew evil upon himself and had to suffer under it: "a scapegoat!"
• So the end of his life is the conclusion of one thread in his life, which helps us to understand that he offered his life for the controversies and struggles of the Schoenstatt Family on the path to 2014.
• In the process "covenant culture" and "new evangelisation" had become central concepts to him. After cancer had been diagnosed, he wrote to his superior, "I will have to cultivate a certain covenant culture connected with cancer, pain and treatment."

The 20 January, based on the covenant of love of 18 October, also stresses the interweaving of destinies between the Founder and his foundation, and between the members of the Family.
Even Christ was not alone as he suffered on the cross. His Mother was to stand beneath the cross and connect her destiny with his until the end.
Also Fr Kentenich did not want to be alone when he exposed himself to death in the concentration camp. He offered his outward freedom for the growth of inner freedom in his followers, and through his readiness to suffer, and the inner freedom of his followers, to regain his outward liberation.
Fr Jonathan's last days throw a special light on this:The Propaedeuticum of the Novices (preparation for higher studies), which he was no longer able to conduct, and the invitation to testify to his personal access to studying Fr Kentenich

• The notes made by his sister, Sr Deanne, in hospital, "Why is it so important to study Fr Kentenich?"

• His observation in his youth of how other people were touched and influenced by Fr Kentenich
• His collection of testimonies in his books "Brushstrokes" – two of the seven volumes he had planned and was able to publish

• The most important thing in study: information – formation – transformation.

• Sr Deanne's notes close with two key remarks: Physical miracles do not fit to Fr Kentenich's greatness. The actual miracles are new evangelisation from person to person.
• These notes are a gift ¬ – and a legacy? – to the novices and to all who want to study Fr Kentenich in the time to come.
• Here the interweaving of destinies in the covenant of love shines out. Just as he fused his destiny with that of Fr Kentenich – very specially in his death – he has also fused it with ours.
• To Fr Walter he said, "The Original Shrine has to be ransomed, and I invite you all to carry on with it."

Today, as his mortal remains are consigned to the earth, we want to take his hand in spirit as we resolve and promise: We want to carry on and continue what your life has borne witness to. Amen."

The "Father with the brown paper bag"

At the end of Holy Mass there were three speakers. They all thanked their confrere for what he had meant to them in their lives.
First, Fr Christian Christiansen, Regional Superior in the USA, spoke.
The third to speak was Fr Zé Fernando, Brazil, Course Leader of Fr Jonathan's course. He was present when he died.
Then it was again there: The unmistakable brown paper bag. Who doesn't know it? It was presented by Fr Tom Niehaus, Fr Jonathan's youngest brother. He was the second to speak. He brought the bag along and copied his bother's gesture as he drew out of it the ingredients for his thanks.

Burial on Mount Sion

The Requiem ended with the blessing of the body in the church, among other things because of the cold and wet weather. After this very impressive ceremony, as the coffin was carried out of the church, and just as it was being loaded into the hearse, a brief, but violent cloudburst broke over Schoenstatt. It seemed as though heaven had suddenly opened all its sluices and poured out all its water in one fell swoop on the earth, so that afterwards we could have a more or less dry break in the weather for the funereal on Mount Sion.
So the celebration on Mount Sion was relatively brief. The prayer in and before the Sion Shrine was followed by the procession to the cemetery where Fr Jonathan's coffin was finally laid to rest.
Finally, it is rewarding to read the entries in the book of condolences, because they reflect what was a very varied and active life, but one that was also very intense. What is mentioned time and again is his "sermons with the brown paper bag" – so vivid and so easy to remember.
If you go to the Mediathek of schoenstatt-tv, you can see and hear the last sermons he gave on 18 September 2011 in the shrine on Mount Sion, in which he spoke about everything depending on the ONE Denarius; and on 19 September 2011 in the Shrine of the Families, in which he spoke about the necessity for new evangelisation.

In conclusion, all that remains if for schoenstatt.org and schoenstatt-tv to thank heaven that we were given Fr Jonathan, and that we got to know him. What remains for us is to thank Fr Jonathan for his ever-ready responsiveness and his support. We are convinced that he will continue to support us from heaven in our efforts to create a covenant culture.

The Videos of the funeral are available at schoenstatt-tv : Mass in the Adoration Church- Mount Sion Cemetary

Translation: Mary Cole, Manchester, England