Christ saved us through His Death – for only through His Death did He Resurrect!
The season of Easter is approaching. The Resurrection of Christ is at hand. Rejoice and be glad. Rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice.
And yet…
There was death before there was life.
And it is the passage through death, that I am contemplating as we move ever closer to Passion Week.
At this time, I have been praying intently for all of those who grieve.
And people grieve for so many things. There are parents who grieve for their children who had died before them, and children who grieve for their parents. There are husbands who grieve for their wives and wives for their husbands, and friends for their friends.
And then there are other griefs… Grief for the life we could have had – the dreams that never came true, the prayers where God answered NO, not YES. The divorces, heartbreak, separation, childlessness, rejection, hurt, loneliness, tears.
All these things are real – and they cause real grief.
So often when we lose a loved one, we are told that we must “let them go”. Often our well-meaning families and friends speak of letting them go and sending them on.
But that is not correct at all.
For we pray with the Communion of Saints.
That word COMMUNION is an important one for us as Catholics. Communion literally means sharing...
Through our Baptism in The Son we become children of The Father and live as Temples of the Holy Spirit.
The Father and The Son and The Holy Spirit. The Blessed Trinity. Our God is THREE persons in ONE God.
Our God is an infinite, eternal and perfect RELATIONSHIP.
That is the Mystery of the Holy Trinity. That wonderful and blessed RELATIONSHIP is our GOD. That is why our God is perfect LOVE. Because a PERFECT RELATIONSHIP is comprised of PERFECT LOVE.
That is also why I believe that it is incorrect to say that we should “let them go”. Because we were never designed to let go of anything at all.
We are made in God’s image, and Baptised in Him, Children of Him and His Temples on this Earth.
We were not made to let go, but to be in COMMUNION with Him, we were made to SHARE.
Our God is so wonderful that He invites us – even sinful and imperfect me – to share in this wonderful mystery of the Blessed Trinity, by inviting us into His Relationship in the Holy Trinity, which is perfect love.
And so, as I walk forward into Passion week over the next few days, and I reflect on all the grief that I have known – both directly in my life, and through the lived experiences of my neighbours – I think that I am beginning to understand what is meant when Saint Francis said, “It is in dying that we are born to eternal life.”
For Christ’s sacrifice on the Cross was significant only for the fact that it was through that Sacrificial death that His Resurrection was possible.
For through grief there is love.
And, as Christ showed us through His Passion and Death, love should never be let go…
Not even for a billion tears…
For with prayer everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.
Comments