By Ian C. Beck ’12
THE ROUNDUP
Nearly 2,000 people gathered together in St. Francis Xavier Church Monday, March 8 to say one final goodbye to Brophy senior Robby Mayasich ’10.
Mayasich died March 2 after he was struck by a car and sustained severe injuries while running the Ragnar Relay Race Feb. 27.
The church was filled to the brim with friends, family and Brophy faculty.
Many attendants were forced to stand in the back and along the sides of the church; even more gathered in the Brophy Chapel where a live stream of the funeral was played.
The altar was decorated with flowers, framed photos of Mayasich and a projector screen that played a photo slideshow of the teen’s life.
Fr. Eddie Reese, S.J., and the rest of the Brophy Jesuits along with Fr. Daniel Sullivan, S.J., of St. Francis Xavier and other priests from the Phoenix area celebrated the Mass.
“We have been on a journey, a journey of great sorrow and disappointment and many of us have wanted to run away from our Jerusalems,” Fr. Reese said during his homily, referring to the gospel in which two men fled Jerusalem after the death of Jesus. “We have wanted to run from that very place of disappointment, sadness and tragedy; we have wanted to run away from the death of such an innocent, lovable person and yet I have seen in this last week and a half, even in your grief and sorrow, in our sorrow, so many acts of kindness.”
Mrs. Deborah Kauffman spoke during the Mass, calling Mayasich a boy with rare self-coincidence, a person “who cut us all some slack,” a combination of the wise Buddha and adventurous Indiana Jones and a “living, breathing emblem of the Jesuit motto: Men for Others.”
Mr. Dan Mayasich, Robby’s father, acknowledged the “amazing outpouring of kindness, of generosity, of sincerity, of compassion, of love most of all” was overwhelming for his family.
“Everything you brought to us is what Robby bought to us … it has sustained us and will continue to and we feel so blessed,” Mr. Dan Mayasich said.
Mrs. Kauffman offered a fitting goodbye to her former student at the end of her eulogy: “Go with God Robby, we will listen.”
