Every Tear Will Be Wiped Away

We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,

about those who have fallen asleep,

so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope. 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,

so too will God, through Jesus,

bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 

Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,

I have been present at both the deaths of my mother and my father.  They died eighteen years apart, my mother in nineteen-ninety and my father in two-thousand eight.  My mother died young, at age sixty-four and my father at eighty-seven years of age.  Both slipped from this world to the next without much trauma, they went peacefully.  In both cases, I cried but when my mother died I went into what I now know was depression.  My sorrow at the passing of my father was just as great as when my mother passed but I was older and was able to deal with it better.  Death will happen in all families.  Just as sure as there is a God that loves us, there is the certainty of death. 

I do not want to bust up your Sunday and bring you down to consider the ultimate facts of life and death.  I want to encourage you to remember that the death of one we loved is not an ending but rather it is a new beginning.  We are assured that we will meet those that we have loved in the afterlife and we will be together again. More than that, at the end of time, we will not be disembodied spirits but we will have our bodies back and they will no longer be subject to decay and disease. They will be resurrected bodies that will be recognizable as our own but endowed with miraculous powers.

Then there is where we will be. We cannot imagine what heaven will be like. It will be a place where love reigns and there will be no tears of sorrow ever again.  Sickness will be something that no longer exists.  The aches and pains we suffer today will forever be gone.  The light will forever be bright in heaven because it's source will be from the holiness of God.  The rich people of the planet earth live in great splendor here where rust and moth take their toll.  For us, there will be the mansion built by Jesus Himself for us and it will be grander and more beautiful than any dwelling place ever constructed on earth because it will be built just for us! 

Today, all around us, are people who are closer to death than we are.  Some are in hospital or hospice counting the days, hours, or minutes until their destiny is wrought.  Or they have received word from their doctor that there is nothing more to be done and that they should plan for the end.  There are those that are afraid and are holding on to what they know with grim determination and grasping at torturous medical procedures in the vain hope of prolonging their life.  There are those also who are but moments or even seconds away from their encounter with eternity and with God.  We have to pray for all of these people.  We have to pray that they are given the help they need to accept God's invitation to experience eternity to not hold foolishly to the things of time but to embrace the things of eternity.  Each of them is beloved by God and no matter what kind of life they have lived, they will all have a final chance to claim their birthright as a son or daughter of the Great King in that final moment.  For those who have lived their lives in a worthy manner who have loved God above all, the choice will be simple, sweet, joyful, and immediate. For those who are still attached to the world, who carry with them the burden of sin, forgiveness will there for the asking, but many will choose to remain mute before the great judge because their guilt, their sinfulness, their rejection of the graces that were sent them will be self-evident and they will move away from the light of Christ towards the everlasting darkness.  Others, who are aware that they are not yet ready to stand in heaven will choose to purify themselves in Purgatory.  There they will have the joy of knowing for certain that in the future they will experience the joy of heaven when they are cleansed of the effects of sin and from attachments to worldly things.  That joy will never be taken away from them.

So today, my friends, make it a point to pray for all of those among us who are at a point in their life where they approach a crossroads. Pray that all of them experience a peaceful and joyful death and that those among them that need to accept the final chance that God will give them.  It will be a tough choice to turn away from a life filled with hate for the Holy but it can be done.  And for our friends and relatives in Purgatory, pray for them too.  Remember, as they are, you might someday be.