On Death and Dying and Life and Rising

For through faith you are all children of God in Christ Jesus.   

have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free person,

there is not male and female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's descendants, 

I was at a wake yesterday.  The man who passed away was in his early thirties and had a beautiful wife and a bright three-year-old son. The man died of cancer.  You have to ask why such a thing can happen.  Why did God allow this man to die so young in life leaving behind these two dependents?  I cannot answer this question all I can do is to trust in God. His infinite knowledge of us knows that we can handle whatever life brings us.  He will be there to comfort and sustain us.  The tears shed will be numbered and not one of them will be wasted.  I think of the mother and the little boy and the empty place at the dinner table, the one person parent-teacher conferences, the loneliness that will fill her heart now that the funeral is over and all of the support she had over the days between death and burial will lessen as people resume their lives.  God will continue to be present in their lives and when needed, he will come and dry their tears and lift their spirits.  

My reflection has little to do with the reading for today.  But I remember how devasted I was when I faced the death of my mother and later my father.  When my mother passed away I went into depression for about six months.  Nothing interested me.  I am a great reader, but in this period I kept reading the same book over and over again so I would not have to think. One day, while passing a Catholic Church, Jesus in the Eucharist reached out to me beyond those brick walls and He stood me up and reminded me that in order to be a Christian, I had to forgive the doctor that killed my mother.  It's a long story, but it was the uncaring attitude of my mother's doctor-employer that caused cancer to go untreated until it had gone beyond the point it was treatable. I hated this miserable curr of a doctor. It was this hatred that was causing my depression.  Jesus reached out to me and I was convicted of my error.  I immediately forgave this practitioner of the healing arts and from that moment, the depression left my soul and I was able to pick up my life and move on. 

I do not really know this family or this new widow.  They are related to a dear woman who is in the choir with us. I pray that the widow is grounded in her faith and that she is able to heal the pain she now feels and for the pain that will not go away, I hope she will turn to Jesus and lay the burden down and accept His healing graces and power. 

When a good person dies in his or her youth, we are dismayed and cannot see the reason for the event.  The hardest thing to do when you are in mourning is to rise from the ashes and to continue your walk through life.  But we do it and we do it with God's help.  After all, His only son suffered the pains of death and through it, He brought us everlasting life.  

May the souls of the faithfully departed through the mercy of God rest in peace.  Amen.