Commemoration of the Faithful Departed Yrs ABC 2025

Title

Hope in the Face of Death

Outline

Death is the Last Fearful Enemy

First because it is always close at hand from the report of a fatality highway accident closing roads in Austin to our friend or family member dying either slowly or suddenly (on Friday we buried a priest who served in the Diocese of Austin who had died while praying in his church, aged 69) or news reports of the US assassination of, as of Friday, a total of 61 people whom they claimed were drug dealers. You do not need to live in the Ukraine or Gaza or Darfur to be close to death.

Second, because it is a veil that we cannot see behind. It separates us from the deceased now and threatens to separate us from our living friends and relatives in the possibly near future.

Third, because it requires faith to see behind. Isaiah portrays what we would call the wedding supper of the Lamb and does so in vivid language we can almost see and taste. But only if we trust the prophet and have had some experience of God does it become real to us. And even then the sense of loss may may cloud our hope.

Therefore Paul often reminds us about the reality beyond death

In our text he says we grieve, but not as those “without hope.” Because of our trust in Jesus’ death and resurrection we can be assured that when he returns to rule he will “bring with him those who have fallen asleep.” And then he pictures a parousia as Jesus returns with those who know of as dead and we are caught up and transformed to be in the procession as it “descends.” We picture this repeatedly as best we can to to live in hope.

Jesus pictures the same thing differently

He says, “Trust me.” Which is hard to do in grief. He has told us his Father is our Father and so he continues that in his Father’s house are many dwelling places, enough room for all of us who trust in him. He is addressing the living disciples about themselves, so he says “I will come back again and take you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” It may be unseen by those around the dying person, but he is there as a spiritual reality “taking them to himself.” And when Thomas, ever the realist bold enough to ask the question others are thinking says, “How do we get there?” Jesus answers, It is not how or where but who. “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” It is a union with Jesus, for we are in the realm of the spirit, not the realm of this age. Of course, this would be before the end of this age when Paul’s picture has the deceased believers returning and the still living joining them.

So Sisters, let us apply these texts to us

When we lose a loved one, meditate on these texts, as I advised my friend Andreas to do after the death of his wife and which he did, walking in the German woods. And it is what I did visiting the grave of our infant daughter. And now as a Catholic I can say in a more developed way that the veil is not soundproof, so talk to the deceased and, if it is possible that they are undergoing purgation, pray for them, as I am sure that you do. As I walk back home after mass I have a list of saints that I pray to often adding out daughter and then parents and grandparents and a brother that I often pray for.

When we look on our life, especially when troubled, memento mori, perhaps using the gospel. That image of a place for us, of Jesus coming for us, and of our being with him helps us relativize our troubles, increase our longings for him, and burn into our souls the willingness to serve well knowing that eventually we will hear, “You’ve finished serving me, now come here, I will take you to my Father.”

As Paul says, “Therefore, console one another with these words.”