25-Oct-2008
Dear Friend,
‘Death is not God’s doing, he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the
living,’ says the Book of Wisdom. Today we are reminded that all of us will
die, in fact some have already gone ahead of us. It matters not how long we
live but how well. Generally we do not like to think or speak of death. Yet
death is a reality we all have to face one day or another. To those who do not
believe death makes no sense, to those who do, death is the end of one life and
the beginning of a better one! There is only one way we can prepare for
immortality that is to love this life and live it well. Have a prayerful
weekend remembering those gone ahead of us to our Father’s house! -Fr. Jude
Sunday Reflections: –All Souls Day “May they enjoy eternal rest in His
Kingdom” 2-Nov-2008
Readings: Isaiah 25: 6-9; Romans 5: 5-11; John 11: 17-27;
In today’s first reading the prophet Isaiah begins with a feeling of deep
depression almost forgetting what happiness could mean. This is man’s reaction
in the face of death, or the prospect of isolation, want or chronic ill-health.
Is this the end of it all? Then the prophet remembers what God has revealed of
his mercy and he speaks words of hope as he describes final salvation and the
joy of the chosen ones of God, who replied to the Lord’s invitation, in terms
of a banquet. With the reawakening of faith comes the feeling of peace. The
souls in purgatory have this peace as they wait in patience for the Lord’s
coming and the fulfilment of his promise. What is certain is that he will come
and bring his peace and consolation to all who await his coming.
On Hospitality
During the Second World War I had something to do with a canteen which was run
for the troops in the town in which I was working. Early in the way, we had
billeted with us in the town a number of polish troops who had escaped from
Poland. Among them there was a Polish airman. When he could be persuaded to
talk, he would tell the story of a series of hair-raising escapes. He would
tell of how somehow he had escaped from Poland, how somehow he tramped his way
across Europe, how somehow he had crossed the Channel, how he had been shot
down in his aeroplane once and crashed on another occasion. He always concluded
the story of his encounter with the same awe-stricken sentence: “I am God’s
man.”
William Barclay
Paul in his letter to the Romans reminds them that ‘whether we live or die we
belong to the Lord’. Death makes no difference to the Christian and there
should be no fear for the one who believes in Jesus Christ. No matter what we
do, none of us are beyond the care and providence of our loving God. Even when
our mortal nature falls apart and our soul is separated from our body at death,
we are not beyond God’s reach. Paul stoutly argues that all will rise again
with the glory of the Risen Lord. When Christ comes the dead will arise to meet
him, the faithful of all ages will share in the risen Lord’s glory and new
life. Not our deeds, but God’s Spirit fills us with hope for the living and the
dead.
Be Not Afraid!
I should like to read to you some passages from a letter from a man, Captain
Scott of the Antarctic, written in the tent, where it was found long afterwards
with his body and those of some other very gallant gentlemen, his comrades. The
writing is in pencil, still quite clear, though towards the end some of the
words trail away as into the great silence that was waiting for them. It began:
“We are pegging out in a very comfortless spot, hoping that this letter may be
found and sent to you. I write you a letter of farewell. I want you to think
well of me and my end. Goodbye – I am not at all afraid of the end, but sad to
miss many a simple pleasure which I had planned for the future in our long
marches. We are in a desperate state –frozen feet etc., no fuel, and a long way
from food, but it would do your heart good to be in our tent, to hear our songs
and our cheery conversations…. We are very near the end…We did intend to finish
ourselves when
things proved like this, but we have decided to die naturally without.”- I
think it might uplift you to stand for a moment by the tent and listen, as he
says, to their songs and cheery conversation.
J.M. Barrie in ‘Quotes and Anecdotes’
In today’s gospel we see Jesus with his friends Martha and Mary as he goes to
meet them on the occasion of receiving the news of the death of Lazarus. The
narrative tells us that he did not immediately rush to Bethany on hearing this
news, but went almost four days after Lazarus was dead and buried in the tomb.
Why did he hesitate and delay? Did he not care for his friends? Could he not do
anything for those who were in pain and loss? These are questions that come up
in our mind not only about the family of Lazarus, but also each time we are
confronted with the death of near and dear ones. When Martha and Mary hear that
Jesus had finally arrived, their reactions were different. While Martha went
out to meet him, Mary remained sitting inside the house. Martha immediately
voices her hope in a plaintive voice: “If you had been here, my brother would
not have died.” At the same time she expresses her faith in Jesus: “But I know
even now, whatever you
ask of God, he will grant you.” Jesus responds to her faith by reassuring her,
“Your brother will rise up again!” “I am the resurrection and the life!” –this
statement of Jesus is the centre piece of this gospel on the raising of
Lazarus. To believe in Jesus, Messiah and Son of God, is to have in oneself
eternal life, which no physical death can overthrow. When we believe in the
power of the Lord Jesus the impossible becomes possible, where there is death
life is restored. This happened for Jesus after he died on the Cross submissive
to the Father’s will, and the same happens to all who accept death as the will
of the Father, who let his son die on the cross, and who allows us to suffer
pain and even death. We cannot understand why this has to happen but we know
that only through death do we reach the fullness of life.
Looking In The Mirror
There is a story about a Jewish man who survived the concentration camps. The
night after his liberation, he went to stay in a nearby house. There he found
about thirty other survivors gathered in the room. Seeing a mirror on the wall,
he went over to it. He was anxious to see what he looked like. But in the same
mirror he saw the reflection of some other people as well. There were many
faces in the mirror. And he could not tell which one belonged to him. He had to
make faces and gestures, in order to be able to distinguish himself from the
group. And when he did distinguish his own face, he got a terrible shock.
Because the person he saw in the mirror was one he had never seen before. He
was so changed that the person in the mirror didn’t bear any resemblance to the
person he had seen before the war. A strange story but true.
Flor McCarthy in ‘New Sunday and Holy Day Liturgies’
“Our secularized society has passed slowly but definitely from a concept of
death as something familiar and ordinary, which prevailed in antiquity and the
Middle Ages, to a state in which death is shied away from or falsified, even
repressed, a forbidden subject: the temptation of the West has become a flight
from death. Yet the death of a believer is a real lesson about life. The
believer is not exempt from the agony of death, from its apparent absurdity,
the great loneliness which marks the last struggle. Death is always a trial,
the wages of sin, it is never easy. Jesus himself did not have an easy death:
for all that clear insight he had lit up in the agony of Gethsemane, he wished
to bear the weight of the sins of the world. However, he was not responsible
for those sins, so hell could not hold him. The sterile companion of our sin,
death, thus reveals a possible fruitfulness. In the measure in which, following
the example of Christ, the
Christian prepares, welcomes and lives his death as an offering of love, he
becomes one with Christ in his act of voluntary expiation: stretched out
towards the whole of the Easter mystery, he hopes to be with the Lord forever.
Doubtless he will cry out in distress before he is finished: does not the newly
born child also express its distress at being born into life? God often gives
back to one who has just died the appearance of a sleeping child. This is a
sign!” -Glenstal Bible Missal
Loss And Return
There is a sacred story from the Jewish tradition which tells of a certain
rabbi and his wife who had two sons to whom they were extremely devoted. One
Sabbath morning while the rabbi was teaching the Law in the synagogue, both
boys were struck by a sudden illness and died. The mother laid them out on a
bed and covered them with a white sheet. When the rabbi came home for his meal
and asked where the children were, the wife made some excuse and waited till
the rabbi had eaten. She did not answer her husband’s question but instead
asked one of him. “I am placed in a difficulty,” she said,” because some time
ago a person entrusted to my care some possession of great value which he now
asks me to give back. I am unsure of what to do. Am I obliged to return these
great valuables to him?” “That you should need to put this question surprises
me” the rabbi replied. There can be no doubt about what you must do. How can
you hesitate to restore to
anyone what is his own?” The wife then rose from the table and asked the rabbi
to follow her. She led him to the room where the two bodies lay and pulled back
the sheet. “My sons, my sons,” groaned the father in pain. “The Lord gave and
the Lord has taken away,” said his wife through her tears. “Blessed be the name
of the Lord. You have always taught me to restore without reluctance what has
been lent to us for our happiness. We have to return our two sons to the God of
all mercies.” –Like the Jewish women in the story, we are consoled by our faith
in difficult times. Of course, faith does not banish our sense of loss, but it
affirms the great truth that all life is a gift from God. Who we are is what we
have been given. Death is not a door in the dark, but a dark door into the
light.
Denis McBride in ‘Seasons of the Heart’
May we pray and support our brothers and sisters who have gone ahead of us on
our way home!
Fr. Jude Botelho
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
PS. The stories, incidents and anecdotes used in the reflections have been
collected over the years from books as well as from sources over the net and
from e-mails received. Every effort is made to acknowledge authors whenever
possible. If you send in stories or illustrations I would be grateful if you
could quote the source as well so that they can be acknowledged if used in
these reflections. These reflections are also available on my web site
www.netforlife.net Thank you.
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