Is childhood ever long enough, or a happy time, or even a beautiful summer day? All of these carry the seeds of the same fierce mystery that we call death.- Eugene Kennedy
November is a month where we remember - soldiers who have sacrificed, and even our friends and relatives who have gone before us. There is a sweet joy in the knowledge of the resurrection as we recall familiar names.
I should have started with something light before getting into mysteries like affliction, suffering and death. These are profound realities and it is good to reach an understanding of them based on faith and God's love.
Jesus and his disciples were walking around one day, when Jesus said, "The Kingdom of Heaven is like 3x squared plus 8x minus 9." The disciples looked very puzzled, and finally asked Peter, "What on earth does Jesus mean - the Kingdom of Heaven is like 3x squared plus 8x minus 9?" Peter said, "Don't worry. It's just another one of his parabolas."
Jesus constantly tries to teach us about the ultimate mysteries, often in parables, but in the end he illustrated it all through his dying and rising. St Paul tells us that the light of the risen lord shines through the gap of death (1 Corinthians 15:14) and we can base our hopes on that.
Death is a natural event, as is decay and suffering: In the garden the door is always open into the "holy" - growth, birth, death. Every flower holds the whole mystery in its short cycle, and in the garden we are never far away from death, the fertilizing, good, creative death. May Sarton
I take great solace and enlightenment from my collection of quotes on the mysteries of life and the reality of death. Eternity is not something that begins after you are dead. It is going on all the time. We are in it now. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
The timing of death, like the ending of a story, gives a changed meaning to what preceded it. Mary C. Bateson
But before those final events in our lives God gives most of us many years to get it right, to learn the lessons of love and stewardship. We are called to accept the heart of the Gospel message: Jesus has redeemed us. Salvation has been won. So what is left for us to do?
God has empowered us to be co-creators in our physical and spiritual universe. We use our talents and cooperate with his grace to be Christ as we surrender our lives through love and service to others.
Allow me a simple illustration from Elie Wiesel: Gerer Rebbe decided to question one of his disciples: "How is Moshe Yaakov doing?" The disciple didn't know. "What!" shouted the Rebbe, "You don't know? You pray under the same roof? You study the same book? You serve the same God? - yet you dare to tell me that you don't know how Moshe Yaakov is "
Here, concludes Wiesel, lies the very essence of our way of life: all people must share in others' lives, and not leave them to themselves, not in sorrow and not in joy.
