LINCOLN — Accompanied by a Knights of Columbus honor guard amid a crowd of parishioners, family, and friends, the Right Reverend Exarch Joseph S. Haggar, pastor emeritus of St. Basil the Great Greek Melkite Catholic Church in Lincoln, was laid to rest in a funeral Divine Liturgy on April 5 at the church he had helped to build.
Father Haggar had been pastor of St. Basil’s from 1973 to 2020. It was during his leadership that the present St. Basil the Great, incorporating not only a church and baptistery but also a religious school and cultural center, was constructed between 1997-1998 in a move from the congregation’s original and much smaller site in Central Falls.
Though Father Haggar had received many honors and titles during his life, he was known simply and affectionately as “Uncle Joe” to his family, said his nephew Mark Colabella in a statement before the liturgy began.
“His smile always lit up the room,” said Colabella, “and you knew you were in the presence of a wise and compassionate man.”
Colabella acknowledged Father Haggar’s “brilliant and serious side,” demonstrated by his work on the 1970 Byzantine Melkite Sacramentary; but also recalled the “fun side” of his uncle, which included driving a car adorned with vanity plates that read “FrJoe”.
“Even the pope doesn’t have vanity plates,” Colabella said. “Then again, Rome is not Rhode Island.”
Colabella said that it was “appropriate, and perhaps divinely intervened,” that his uncle passed on the Third Sunday of Lent, which is observed as the Veneration of the Holy Cross in the Melkite rite.
“That strong and often frail man was so strong in carrying his cross, mostly effortlessly,” said Colabella. “He always was there for us regardless of how he was feeling, in service to us. He always put us first. It was never about him.”
“He carried that cross without complaint, just as Jesus showed us.”
Father Haggar’s personal holiness was also noted in letters from Bishop Nicholas J. Samra, Bishop Emeritus of the Melkite Catholic Diocese of Newton, and Bishop Milad Jawish of the Melkite Catholic diocese of St. Sauveur in Montreal, Canada.
Bishop Samra recalled Father Haggar as a lifelong “true friend and brother” who had warmly welcomed him on his entrance to St. Basil Seminary in Methuen, Massachusetts.
Boston Archbishop Richard G. Henning, former Bishop of Providence, gave a brief address that ended with a prayer for God to “heal (the) souls” of those in mourning.
Bishop François Beyrouti, of the Melkite Catholic Diocese of Newton, delivered the homily, in which he measured Father Haggar’s success not according to common standards but by four “biblical parameters”: How well do we respond to God, does that response lead to sacrifice, and does that sacrifice lead to service, and does that service create a community of faith?
“I think, by all four of those standards, we are right in celebrating the life of Father Joe,” said Bishop Beyrouti, noting in particular that sacrifice “is a word that is avoided, is unpopular, and has been removed from our common vocabulary” but is a necessary part of responding to God. Father Haggar’s life of sacrificial love and humility led to the creation of St. Basil’s Melkite Catholic Church.
“He always carried (his) responsibilities with a spirit of service, a spirit of love, and a spirit of humility,” as Christ had shown in the washing of his apostles’ feet in John 13.
At the conclusion of the liturgy, Father Haggar’s face was covered with the same cloth that had been used to cover the Holy Gifts on the altar, an Eastern Catholic practice that recalls the covering of a priest’s head at his ordination and signifies that he has devoted his life to the celebration of the sacred mysteries.
His final words to the congregation were read before the departure to the graveside service.
“For every kindness, for every prayer, for every cooperation, for every greeting, for every gift, I thank you from the bottom of my heart,” Father Haggar’s statement said. “Your dedicated faith and strong love of the Melkite Greek Catholic traditions merit you praise.”
Referencing the building of St. Basil’s “monumental complex” under his direction, and the growth of its congregation from 200 families in 1966 to more than 500 currently, Father Haggar wrote, “I prayerfully trust that the new millennium…will witness a continuing spiritual growth and development of the fine traditions which have marked our past, and where our church and rite will make its rightful contribution to building up the mystical Body of Christ.”
“Be assured, I will watch you from above, and wish you peace, good health, and joy. To one and all, a million thanks.”
But though Father Haggar was buried in St. Basil Cemetery in Cumberland, his true memorial is not made of stone. In his address to the congregation, Colabella noted that the words on the memorial to Sir Christopher Wren at St. Paul’s Cathedral in London, “If you seek his monument, look about you,” are also true of Father Haggar, whose living monument is St. Basil the Great itself and its congregation.
Father’s Haggar’s extensive obituary can be found at https://www.oneillfuneralhomes.com/obituary/rt-reverend-exarch-joseph-haggar.
