This is one of those days that not only am I thankful to be Christian, I am particularly thankful to be part of the Catholic Church that is holding onto the teachings of Christ’s Church which so many have abandoned. Is the hope testified to in the Scriptures too much to hope for some?I friend stopped by last night, B., who offered to come by today and serve a mass for my dead relatives who died a number of years ago. In return I also remember all of his loved ones too. It was interesting that we both admitted to, even as kids, not experiencing the death of others the way so many people do. We share a sense that even if we were sad for our own sakes, there was also an underlying joy and an assurance that this separation was somehow so temporary.
But further than that is, as members of the one Body of Christ that has Christ as its head, we are still somehow mystically united. Our prayers for each other still flow back and forth.
Not too much
before the death of my mother, Bishop Pilla, the bishop of this diocese at the time, experienced the death of his. At the end of Mom’s funeral mass he came down off of the altar to speak to the family. “I’m not able to tell you how, but I can tell you that you will have and know the presence of your mother.” And we have, not in a “Halloweenish” kind of way, but as a consolation from God.I have family that does not believe in an afterlife. Actually, my Father is much that way. The silent desperation in his later years is a sad thing to see and there is little to be done about it. “Do you know why I live life so hard,” he once asked me, “Because I have to get it all in before it is all ove
r.” He can’t envision anything beyond what is right now and so there is no hope beyond waking up tomorrow. As a 40 year old he was fine with that. As an 87 year old it is positively depressing. And the death of his friends is utter destruction which no hope can comfort.To think – to know - with the assurances of Scripture and Tradition of not only 2000 years of Christianity, but reaching back into the books of Maccabees, Sirach, and even Job that our prayers can touch and assist those who have gone before us. And to know that “all t
he ties of love and affection which unite together in life do not unravel with death.” That there is but one Body of Christ all pulling for each other. That death is an illusion and a poor one at that for the one who can see the strings dangling. Knowing this makes life no longer just bearable, but joyful. Death is no longer a divider but something that unites. 87 years means no longer desperation, but even if it can be scary, there is indestructible hope.Praise God.
