John Langan, S.J., preached the homily at the funeral of Robert Drinan, S.J., on Feb. 1, 2007. The full text of his homily is below.

At the time of his violent death, Charles de Foucauld had had founded no congregation nor attracted any followers. And yet his witness endured.

Balthasar seemed to know just what I was feeling: Christians, he said, often feel like a foreigner forced to speak in a language whose rules they have never learned, or a stuttering child who wants to say something but cannot.