Death is Part of Life. Or is it?

Second reading
1 Corinthians 15:54-58 ©

Death is swallowed up in victory

When this perishable nature has put on imperishability, and when this mortal nature has put on immortality, then the words of scripture will come true: Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? Now the sting of death is sin, and sin gets its power from the Law. So let us thank God for giving us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

  Never give in then, my dear brothers, never admit defeat; keep on working at the Lord’s work always, knowing that, in the Lord, you cannot be laboring in vain.

We had gone fishing.  I caught a couple of bullheads and my father caught for me a new pet, a turtle who we named "Nosy."  At the end of the expedition, we loaded up the car and Nosy was in a bait bucket partially filled with water and we stopped at the rainbow ice cream store and Dad treated us to rainbow cones. We were filled with as much happiness that day as a family could be.  Then we arrived home and we unloaded the car and before we could eat dinner, the phone rang.  It was my Uncle John who told my father that their mother, my grandmother, had been found in her house comatose and while she was taken to the hospital, she had died moments after arriving there.  She died of an insulin overdose, she was a type one diabetic.  The day that had started so happily ended in a storm of grief.  

The next day, Uncle John came over and picked up Dad and he told me to come along that they were going to the funeral home to make arrangements for Grandma.  This was the first time I had been included with the adults in something that was so important, but then again, I was an adult myself, I was seven years old!  We got to the funeral home and we all took our places around a large table and Dad and my uncle spoke with the undertaker.  I was there to answer any questions that they might have but they didn't ask me anything.  After they had spoken together for a while, the undertaker asked us to follow him.  He took us to an unmarked door, he opened it and flicked on a light.  Below as far as the eye could see were coffins, which I found out were more properly called caskets. We descended this rickety stairway into one of the spookiest places I had ever been in.  The Undertaker showed Dad and Uncle John various caskets and explained the benefits and the price of each.  I was there to settle any disputes, none arose and after ten minutes, the selection had been made and we ascended the rickety stairway back into the bright light and warm tones of the funeral home proper.  There was a shaking of hands all around and we all left.  A couple of days later, after going to Robert Hall and obtaining proper clothing for the event we arrived back at the funeral home where we were directed to the second floor.  Upon arriving I was surprised to see Grandma laying in the casket sporting a hairdo that just was not her.  My father told me that we were at Grandmas wake and I said why don't you wake her up now?  He explained to me about death, which I kind of knew about but before me was displayed in all of its mid-twentieth century glory was my first practical example of death and what it meant.  Two days later with Grandma moved to the first floor "chapel" the final act took place.  

We sang with or listened to a couple of songs and then one of the undertakers stood up and said some nice things about Grandma and the casket was closed, we took her to the cemetery and after some prayers, she was lowered into the grave.  We turned and went back to our cars, went to a restaurant that was not too far from the cemetery and shared a meal together.  Then we went home and life continued as before, just without Grandma.  That is the story of how I first felt the pain that death causes to the people left behind.  Oh, time did deaden the feeling of loss, but it never, until this day, has ever left me.  I have had to add to my sorrow memories of my other grandmother, grandfather, mother, father, uncles, and aunts who I never see anymore.  Death is a fact of life.  Or is it? 

Death has been defeated!  What was once permanent is now powerless.  Jesus has defeated death and all that it encumbers and one day a final burial will take place and that will be of death and there will be no mourners as we will all dance and sing of the wonderful gift of eternal life that God has given to us.  So, do not be discouraged because of the evil you see in the world, it is defeated already.   Do not be afraid of what will happen to the Church because of the scandal that is engulfing it like a forest fire.  The fire is already quenched.  Jesus will bring a victory out of what we see as abject defeat.