I, personally, am still struggling to come to grips with the fact that he is gone. I spoke to him 3 days before his death about his excitement to go to Africa. It still seems surreal. Please pray for his family.
This is from the homily given by Fr. Gregory Plow, TOR, at Tyler's memorial Mass on July 2 here at Franciscan. I am very glad I was able to be there and hear Fr. Gregory speak so highly of the man who I know was one after God's own heart:
“Jesus explains that the Son of man has no where to rest his head. Jesus is describing the law of an itinerant preacher as being homeless… homeless in the sense calling the world a home and going wherever the Lord calls you to preach to help people in need and preach the Gospel. Tyler Peltier answered this call. He was involved in many things at our University. He was very active not only in his own household, Disciples of the Word, but he was well-loved by many people in many households and by many students who are not in households. Tyler worked at the information desk answering phones as the first voice for many coming to the University in the fall. Tyler worked in the mail room and was cheerful in greeting everyone whom he served by bringing mail to their offices. Tyler also worked for the PR Office, the Public Relations as a photographer… But in just two weeks he was about to just leave everything behind to serve the poor. In just two weeks before he died he had purchased his plane tickets to Africa to engage in his sharing work. And ironically soon with his unexpected death, his last Facebook status post he made was something to the order of, 'I have my tickets in hand. There’s no turning back now.' Although of course he meant that for Africa, one can’t help but see that unbeknownst to him or any of us, this saying could be applied to his journey to heaven. 'I have my tickets in hand. There’s no turning back now.' Yes, Tyler was extremely kind. Tyler was not offensively funny. But more importantly he heeded the call of God in the Scriptures today and in many other places to see himself as not having a place to rest his head, to follow Christ among the poor. We pray for him and for his family. As we honor him in this, we are sad that so many other people will not have the opportunity to be a recipient of the great love he had in his heart. The life in his heart may have been weak, but his heart was very strong— to answer God’s call... In the light of the readings today and Tyler’s example, may we reexamine how we are living out the same divine command in our lives. Does God want you to engage in missionary work somehow on a local or a grander vocation scale? Or if you are already in a vocation and an occupation with a safer salary, do you tithe to those who are less fortunate? As we proceed in prayer today for Tyler and his family, may our challenge be to live by his example to grow in the values that we need to complete God's work today. May we repent of our sins to avoid God’s punishment and answer God’s loving call to follow Him in more profound ways especially to the poor.”
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Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. May his soul and the souls of all the faithful departed, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
