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Thomas Farragher

For broken-hearted, healing words of hope

Firefighters saluted the procession at the funeral for Specialist Brian Arsenault, which was held in St. Rose of Lima Roman Catholic Church in Northborough on Tuesday. Hundreds of people arrived to express gratitude for his service, and people lined the route to the cemetery.PAT GREENHOUSE/GLOBE STAFF

NORTHBOROUGH — More than two hours before this small town said farewell to its fallen son, the Rev. James Houston sat at his rectory’s dining-room table early Tuesday and reached for words of comfort he could scarcely summon.

Instead he found these: Unbearable. Unspeakable.

“People are suffering,’’ said Houston, tears on his cheek. “People are really hurting. It’s just so sad.’’

Two hours later, as the body of Army paratrooper Brian K. Arsenault lay before the altar of the church Jim Houston has led for 25 years, the pastor seemed to draw strength from the words a grieving father offered to a packed congregation at St. Rose of Lima Church.

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With dignity and humor, Daniel Arsenault talked about his son, the boy he watched grow into a man who could wear fluffy slippers, sink into a comfortable chair, and lose himself in a good book or a goofy cartoon.

His son, a free spirit and a handsome man, had served his country and had mastered life’s most essential things, his father said.

“Brian knew what was important,’’ Daniel Arsenault told the stone-silent church. “He knew what mattered. And he knew how to pursue it.’’

Two weeks ago, that pursuit found Specialist Arsenault’s unit engaged in small-arms fire with the enemy in a place in Afghanistan called Ghazni. Brian Arsenault had enlisted in 2011. His tour of duty was due to end in November. Instead, the decorated member of the 82d Airborne Division became Northborough’s first active-duty death since Vietnam.

And now, after scriptural readings and the Gospel of John, it was Houston’s job to bring a sense of hope, to provide some sliver of peace, to find light in deep darkness.

“This morning and forever after,’’ Houston began, “our church will be remembered because it is now holy ground.’’ Brian Arsenault’s sacrifice made it so, he said.

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Houston has been a priest for 46 years. He has baptized, married, buried and confirmed thousands of parishioners. He spent nine years working on a national priestly renewal program.

Just last Sunday, Worcester’s bishop saluted his parish for 20 years of a stewardship program that has donated $1 million to needy people and agencies.

But Houston had never celebrated a funeral Mass for a fallen soldier. Until now.

He collected guidance from a military chaplain at West Point, the Army’s military academy, and from colleagues at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, where he serves as a part-time chaplain. And he trusted his instincts, saluting his town, the massive military presence inside his church, and, most important, the Arsenault family.

He looked at Leslie Arsenault as he invoked Michelangelo’s Pietà, the famous sculpture that depicts the body of Jesus in the lap of his mother, Mary.

“Today, we know this pain that is unbearable,’’ he said.

The values of small-town America that he spoke about from the pulpit were on heartbreaking display moments later, when the hearse and the funeral procession headed for Northborough’s municipal center.

Grease-stained mechanics, hands on hearts, stood outside the bays of their garage. Young mothers stood tearfully in a soft rain. Old veterans squeezed into old uniforms and saluted. A paint-spattered worker held a handmade sign. “Thank you, Brian,’’ it read.

At Howard Street Cemetery, Houston offered graveside prayers and then blessed Specialist Arsenault’s coffin. A military honor guard solemnly folded the US flag and presented it to his family.

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Under a low, gray sky, a gun salute crackled, three volleys of seven shots. A bugler played taps. Bells tolled in the near distance.

And a small girl climbed into her mother’s arms as her tiny American flag sailed in a gentle wind.

Thomas Farragher is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at thomas.farragher@globe.com.