Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
One of the most painful things in life is the death of a loved one. Most everyone beyond college age has experienced the death of a family member or friend. Often that first experience of death is surreal and shocking. For some who will read this column, their experiences with grief have included the loss of a spouse or a child, the most painful and heart wrenching of all losses.
The first reading from today’s Mass reminds us of something very important, “God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living… for God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world…” (Wis 1:13; 2:23-24). Death, regardless of the circumstances in which it comes, is the result of a world that has become disordered by sin. But God will not let death have the final say.
We should always have before our eyes the truth of why we exist. We have been made to live forever with God. The very first line of the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that: “God, infinitely perfect and blessed in himself, in a plan of sheer goodness freely created man to make him share in his own blessed life. For this reason, at every time and in every place, God draws close to man. He calls man to seek him, to know him, to love him with all his strength. He calls together all men, scattered and divided by sin, into the unity of his family, the Church.
To accomplish this, when the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son as Redeemer and Savior. In his Son and through him, he invites men to become, in the Holy Spirit, his adopted children and thus heirs of his blessed life.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus raises to life a little girl who had died. The Bible’s accounts of Jesus’ miraculous raising up of the dead is a preview of what awaits all who place their trust in Him. Thus, even in the throes of grief we can have hope in the promise of the Cross and of the Resurrection. For believers, God will not let death have the last word.
Sincerely yours in Christ Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life,
