Religious protocols prevented the priest who celebrated the life of Christopher Lane from directly mentioning the dreadful circumstances that led to his death.
But Mr Lane's grieving father was bound by no such conventions as he spoke with love and raw emotion of the son randomly shot dead by a teenage gunman in America almost two weeks ago.
"When someone as young as Chris loses their life it's always a tragedy," Peter Lane said.
"But when the life is lost for no purpose and with no logic, it makes it much harder to understand and accept.
"What happened to Chris is just not fair, but hanging on to it will not help."
Peter Lane choked on his tears as he spoke of his "superstar son" at the 22-year-old's funeral in Melbourne on Wednesday.
He praised a son who excelled as a sportsman, poignantly recalled the "don't tell dad" moments of mischief and spoke longingly of how Chris had only just moved on "from child to man".
Chris Lane was about to begin his senior year at East Central University in Oklahoma, where he had a baseball scholarship, when he was shot in the back by a teenager he'd never met and who didn't know him.
The killing provoked new and inevitably brief and futile discussion on gun laws in the United States and prompted a tribute from President Barack Obama.
In St Therese's Catholic Church in Essendon it drew out the heartfelt memories of his three older sisters who spoke of the simple joys of Christmas mornings with their baby brother, of his love of getting haircuts when he was a toddler and of a little boy who would sleep with one eye open so as not to miss out on any fun.
His sister Andrea also spoke of Chris's empathy and his "inherent goodness and fairness".
"Ever since primary school, Christopher was always the one to go out of his way to make people feel included," she said.
"He was always helping out the underdog, or anyone who was disenfranchised."
She told the hundreds of mourners in St Therese's how her little brother hated to see his sisters fight or cry.
"That sincerity made him such a fine young man," she said.
The full impact of that point was emphasised after the service as more than a hundred of his old school mates from St Bernard's College and members of the Essendon Baseball Club formed a guard of honour as the cortege drove away.
