The 17th century catholic philosopher and theologian, Blaise Pascal, said, “most of us, spend most of our time, diverting ourselves from facing the inevitability of our mortality”. And so Mother Church, helps us to face the great inevitability, by exposing us to the teachings of Jesus about these things in the Gospels—in the Scriptures.
In the second reading, St. Paul teaches Christians that we do not face death like the rest of the world. For the non-believing Pagans of his day, and the non-believing Pagans of our day, death is something to be feared, to be denied, to lose hope over. Paul says that Christians do not grieve because of death, like those who have no hope.
Yes, of course, we grieve when a loved one dies. We mourn their loss, as we reflect on how deeply they touched lives, and how thankful we are for the time they’ve been given. I’ve had to preach the funeral homilies for nearly 500 people, and yet, when I had to preach the funerals for my grandparents, I was a mess. Then again, I come from a long line of weepy Italians. St. Paul isn’t saying that it’s sinful to shed tears at the death of a loved one, not at all. But, what he’s saying is we mustn’t treat death as if it’s the end, as if we’ll never see the faithful departed again.
Christian’s always face death, with the hope of resurrection, of being reunited with in the kingdom of heaven with all the faithful who have gone before us.
And our hope in life everlasting, is not mere wishful thinking, it’s not a fairy tale that we tell our young ones. It’s based on the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He died on the cross, he was buried, and he rose again. He defeated death, the first born of those who will rise again with him at the end of time.
The martyrs, like St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Paul and all of the apostles, were so confident in the resurrection, that they were able to preach the Gospel to hostile kings and governments and torturers. They did not fear to preach the Gospel to anyone because they knew that even if they were to be killed for preaching the Gospel, the would rise again with Christ, and they would win the martyrs crown.
Our confidence in the resurrection should give all Christians a freedom from the fear of death. Yes, we need to certainly be responsible with the body and the life we’ve been given. But the fear of death must never keep us from doing what is right.
Listen to the fearless words of St. Therese the Little Flower: “It is not Death that will come to fetch me, it is the good God. Death is no phantom, no horrible specter, as presented in pictures. In the catechism it is stated that death is the separation of soul and body, that is all! Well, I am not afraid of a separation which will unite me to the good God forever.”
Living free from the irrational fear of death, enables us to live more fully for God and others, to spend ourselves in service, knowing that we will have all eternity to enjoy a much more glorious reality with God in heaven.
But, as is clear in the Gospel this weekend, heaven is not a guarantee. Like the foolish virgins shout out of the wedding feast, those who spend their earthly lives pursuing false idols, shall be shut out of the heavenly wedding feast forever.
Rather, Christians must be like the wise virgins in the parable, who are prepared for the return of the bridegroom. We are to spend our lives preparing our souls to meet him—by repenting of all sin, and living lives of faith, hope, charity, virtue, and self-sacrificial service.
In this month of November dedicated to praying for the souls of the faithful departed, we pray for all those who were wisely prepared for death, who simply had to be cleaned up a bit in purgatory before entering the wedding feast. If you have not had a mass offered for your departed loved ones in a while, you can do so in the parish office.
As I mentioned last week, Bishop Malesic will be celebrating the 11am Mass tomorrow. If you wish, you can watch the Mass via live stream, which can be accessed on our parish facebook page. You do not need to have a facebook account to access the livestream. You can also access it from our parish website. You can also watch the recorded video at any point throughout the week.
As the Bridegroom comes to us in this holy Mass, under the appearance of bread and wine, he does so to give us a foretaste of the communion that awaits us in the kingdom of heaven. May this Eucharist prepare us for the Lord’s return, spurn us on to meet Him and Serve him in the poor, and prepare our us for eternal life, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.
No comments:
Post a Comment