The only time I had the privilege of sitting with Senator Ted Kennedy in his Capitol Hill office was when I was in the company of another great American Irishman, Michael Harrington. Mike, who saw Ted Kennedy as akin to the sole politician who could bring social democracy to our shores, had gone to meet with Kennedy to discuss a project I was staffing, Democratic Agenda, our attempt to build a strong left-liberal/social democratic wing inside the Democratic Party. It was the mid 1980s and in the midst of discussing Kennedy's support for Democratic Agenda, he also discussed--with incredible ease--the ins and outs of social democratic governments and parties in South America and Europe.

I was especially reminded of this visit when I listened to Kennedy's grandchildren, nieces and nephews recite a litany of his own secular prayers, as it were, for our country. The funeral was an incredible combination of Catholic ritual and a ritual of secular determination to fight for a more just society--that was fueled by and is fueled by--a religious belief in a more equal and just world.

Religion today has been so contaminated in the public square, by the religious right and by zealots. But to watch this funeral, and to think back to those who have inspired me most--especially two whom I used to call my 'rabbis,' even though one was Irish Catholic (Mike Harrington) and another a Jewish intellectual who swore off religion probably around the time of his Bar Mitzvah (Irving Howe), I felt drawn to the power of religion when it is used to do good, when it inspires people to live for others and when, in the time of death, it speaks to those of us who remain and comforts us. In Judaism, the Mourners' Kaddish serves that purpose, and the ritual around death--a set mourning period, a time to renew and re-enter life, an annual "yarzheit" or memorial, and solemn moments during holidays. But ritual for ritual sake, just as religion for religion sake can be an offputting, distancing and even damaging thing. It is when ritual is used as a framework for human introspection that it is best used. And religion, when it is a force both of betterment for others and of questioning--even for the non-believers--is also then at its best. It is the questioning that we need and the fierce drive to continue that sustains us.