BY RITA McINERNEY

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--Priests and people of the Archdiocese of Atlanta and neighboring dioceses gave thanks for Cardinal Joseph Bernardin at a Mass in memory of his life and resurrection Dec. 2 at the Cathedral of Christ the King.

Cardinal Bernardin served as auxiliary bishop to Atlanta Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan from 1966 to 1968. He died of cancer Nov. 14 in Chicago where he had served since 1982.

For those who knew "this good Joe" personally, and for those who recognized him as a priest and prelate in the public eye, he "portrayed vividly and authentically the human face of Jesus," Bishop David Thompson of Charleston, S.C., said in his homily. Born in Columbia, S.C, Cardinal Bernardin was ordained a priest of Charleston in 1952.

Suffering strengthened the resemblance between the Chicago cardinal and his Lord, Bishop Thompson said at the Mass concelebrated by bishops of the Province of Atlanta. "We saw him at peace and in absolute touch with Almighty God. Recent photographs of him and his appearances on television revealed a gentle, kind, pleasant, smiling other Christ."

But it was how this beloved churchman lived and spoke and related to others that made him most resemble Jesus, the bishop, who gave his eulogy standing before the altar, went on to say.

"The Gospel of the beatitudes is the Lord's invitation to draw closer to him. Joseph accepted that invitation and radically depended on Almighty God. He walked so closely with the Lord that he began to look like him."

He also resembled his divine master in his suffering. "As he lay dying...like Jesus, he spoke last words from the cross of his sickbed: peace, love, life, no assisted suicide; ?I have accepted death as my friend not my enemy.'"

Bishop Thompson said he was among more than 250 bishops meeting in Washington, D.C., who received these last words sent to them by the dying cardinal. "We were at Calvary sitting at the foot of the cross of Joseph Cardinal Bernardin and seeing in him the human face of Jesus."

"Who can forget how he lived the beatitude, ?Blest are you when they insult you and persecute you and utter every kind of slander against you because of me'...Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, the spitting image of Jesus."

"His Eminence was particularly blessed in his efforts at peacemaking," the homilist said, noting that he tried to reconcile troublesome differences in his Church and in the world. In the early 1980s he oversaw the bishops' pastoral, "The Challenge of Peace," a letter on nuclear arms and American defense policy that is so powerful it is the subject of study and discussion in military circles.

Another of the cardinal's achievements, Bishop Thompson reminded the congregation, was calling attention to "the consistent ethic of life" as the seamless robe of all life issues "in an effort to have pro-abortionists look more favorably on his Church's opposition to the taking of innocent human life."

Most recently, the bishop added, Cardinal Bernardin sought to establish a Catholic common ground "so that various differences could be discussed...and reconciled but without compromise."

"Both in life and death, we are the Lord's," Bishop Thompson said in a closing reference to St. Paul's letter to the Romans. "Joe Bernardin believed that and now the Lord is lucky that he has him. And how blessed is his Eminence. The kingdom of heaven is his."

As the Mass began, Archbishop John F. Donoghue welcomed clergy representing the Episcopal Diocese of Atlanta, Bishop Frank Allan, Bishop Onell Soto, Bishop Charles J. Child, and retired Dean David B. Collins of the Cathedral of St. Philip.

Archbishop Donoghue spoke gratefully of Cardinal Bernardin's years in Atlanta.

"There could be no greater service than that given by Bishop Bernardin during two years here while Archbishop Hallinan was ill, service to the archbishop and to the community," he said.

Along with Bishop Thompson, Bishop William G. Curlin, Archbishop Donoghue's successor as bishop of Charlotte, N.C., Abbot Bernard Johnson of the Monastery of the Holy Spirit, Conyers, and priests of the archdiocese were concelebrants of the Mass with Archbishop Donoghue.

A large delegation of archdiocesan priests filled the first three pews of the cathedral.

Readings were given by Mason Smith and Martha Clark. The Gospel of the beatitudes from Matthew was proclaimed by Deacon Dick Narey.

Kevin Culver directed members of the Cathedral Choir and Ham Smith led the congregation.

Although the cathedral was not filled for the memorial Mass on Monday after a long holiday weekend, there was a spirit of thanksgiving for this high churchman and gentle friend among people in the pews. Some had known and treasured him since his service in this archdiocese, others knew him through church work. Many admired him for his devotion to God and his great courage in his life as a spiritual leader as well as in his dying.

Marguerite Oberg, a longtime Cathedral parishioner, has a thriving remembrance of Cardinal Bernardin, a beautiful Christmas cactus he gave her before leaving Atlanta. Then just a six-inch baby, it is now a large and colorful "mother plant" from which she has been able to start 10 others.

The night before then Bishop Bernardin left Atlanta, he called the Obergs about 8 o'clock and said he was stopping by. "He said he wouldn't leave Atlanta without saying goodbye. That was typical of him."

"He asked very little of us and we were all so willing," she recalled of his time with Cathedral parishioners.

Sister Barbara Baker, MHSH, of Transfiguration Parish in Marietta, was grateful to be able to attend the Mass. She had encountered the cardinal on numerous occasions while working in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati between 1975 and 1983 when he was archbishop. At each meeting she experienced him as gentle and thoughtful. Later, he would remember their meetings. "I thought this was remarkable given the number of people he came in contact with."

"I watched his funeral and was deeply touched by the outpouring of love, devotion and attention paid to this man, who cared for so many he had never met personally," she said. "This is what Christianity is all about. Cardinal Bernardin makes me grateful and proud to be a Catholic Christian today."