My friend died very suddenly a few days before Christmas. Although getting on in years, she was in relatively good health. She often responded to the question, “How are you?” with a laugh, adding, “I’m doing fine, considering the shape I’m in.” Her positive attitude, full of gratitude, praise and thanks to the Lord, was an inspiration to me. She tried to ignore her arthritis, saying, “I’m thankful I’m as good as I am.”
Her death and birth into eternal life certainly has been a time of grace for me. I think that when someone so close dies — someone we have just visited a day or two before — the thick veil between this world and life with God becomes thinner for a time. The lines between the living and the dead somehow are blurred. The friend or relative we knew so well is now with the Lord. Remembering my friend’s great faith and knowing that death cannot truly separate us continues to be a grace for me. St. Paul was right: for Christians, death really has lost its sting.
When a loved one dies, we are reminded again of the nurturing care and strength of the Church. My dear friend used to say that the Catholic Church cares for us “from the cradle to the grave.” How right she was. The funeral Mass was just as she would have wished, simple and dignified. The focus was where it should be — on the love of Christ and the joy of Christians who know that they will share God’s love always. “Ave Maria” was beautifully sung to honor our Blessed Mother, always so loved by my friend. How blessed we are to have the Mass, the Sacraments and our sacramentals to strengthen and nourish us all of our lives.
The special time of death and burial is a moment of grace also for those who are not practicing their faith and for those who are not Catholics. At wakes and funerals, people are brought together who have not been to church for years. Who knows how the Holy Spirit might use the opportunity to call them back to the unity of the Church? I know from personal experience that this does happen.
I also know from personal experience that presence at Mass can ignite within a person the desire to be united with the Church and to receive the Lord in the Eucharist. The first Mass I ever attended, at the age of 12, was my uncle’s funeral. What a grace it was, since from then on I began to learn about the faith and to desire to become a Catholic.
Like Jesus, who wept at the tomb of Lazarus, we weep when we feel the pain of loss. But, as the priest said so eloquently at my friend’s wake, we can also experience great graces through our sadness. God can use the opportunity to draw us closer to Him.
(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
