On behalf of the President of the United States, my colleagues in the Congress who join me on this day, and the people of this great and blessed land, to the sons that he loved and the family to which he was devoted we express our love, our sympathy and our condolences.

We gather here, the people of different lands and faiths and very varied lives, to lay to rest a friend, a leader of men, a father and a husband. We pray that Jorge Mas Canosa will find the peaceful rest in death that eluded him in life. . . . Unjust is the death of a liberator while the tyrant lives. But because we respect the reasons for which he lived, the achievements of his life shall not be buried with him. Commitments most notable for their simple modesty. Jorge Mas Canosa wanted only for the people of Cuba to live in the liberty the world affords to all other people. Some will despair that their freedom will be postponed again, lost to yet another generation.

But the ultimate gift of Jorge Mas Canosa was that he created a movement larger than even himself: the resolve of the United States, the determination of the Cuban people to end the tyranny.

To those who knew him, he was a man of family, faith and high principle. To those who didn't know him well, he was certain to be misunderstood. He lived in the world of American business, in the sometimes genteel politics of this land, while a leader of the opposition to a brutal dictator. He moved in different worlds and was certain to confuse some.

He may be remembered the longest by people who didn't know him at all, for generations to come. ...

They'll hear how a simple man united a community, inspired America to a great resolve and gave his life the cause of a free Cuba. Those children and those who will follow them, yet unborn, will learn the life of Jorge Mas Canosa and their hearts will swell with pride.

He loved the land of his birth so much that he eschewed a life of comfort and ease to place the burdens of his people above himself. And you too, who may one day return to a free Cuba, will sit in her cafes, walk her hills and beaches, and speak to those who never met him, and with pride in your heart and spirit in your voices you will say: ''I knew Jorge Mas Canosa. I walked by his side, I helped him free this land.''

God bless you, Jorge Mas Canosa. God hold you in His gentle hands. We are the better for having known you. We commend you to your rest and to your place in history. And we leave you this day with this simple but mighty pledge: We swear before God to return to your grave, stand with your sons and lift this casket to our shoulders and bring Jorge Mas Canosa to rest in the soil of a free Cuba.

And on that day, at rest in the land that he loved, remembered by the children who will come to know him, loved by the people that he helped to liberate their land, it will be said: ''Jorge Mas Canosa still lives.''