Sermon Tone Analysis

Potential

Why is a young person dying sad?

In the blossoming of her adulthood.

Well, because they didn’t get a chance to see what life was all about.

They got to enjoy childhood, but, I’d much prefer adulthood to childhood.

It seems that childhood is something that we passed through to get to adolescence to arrive at adulthood.

Now, Sarah, was an adult, making decisions.

And one of the reasons this is sad is because of all the labor and time and energy that goes into raising a human being.

It seems as though the investment is lost.

And who is to know who will live late on in their life or not?

I’ve arrived at this conclusion today, a young life lost is sad, because a young person is all potential, they haven’t actualized their potential yet.

They are in a state of becoming, but haven’t yet become.

And there is sadness in this, that someone young might not have been able to make the decisions later on in life that led them to become the great person that God had in mind when He ensouled our body in our mother’s womb.

However, this got me thinking, how many of us old people have actualized our potential?

I don’t just mean how many of us have celebrated many birthdays.

I mean, how many of us live and fulfill our destinies.

I don’t just want you to find a meaning in life, but THE meaning of life!

Your end, is life with God, your purpose is to become holy, that means to become like God.

You were created in His image and likeness, as it says in Genesis, but by your decisions you can accept this likeness, wear it, and become holy, Christ in you, perfect in Christ, the hope of glory.

What I wonder, how many people, even until old age, live a fulfilling life, a life having loved, and been kissed by God.

How many of us humans misuse our time and choose bad?

Enough, and so young death is sad, and so is a lack of becoming that which you were made for.

Now, Christ died young.

St. James died young, we celebrated yesterday.

Today we celebrate the parents of mary, Joachim and Anne, they lived until they were old, and had as their first born, Mary.

But Christ said today in the Gospel, “Praise you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for although you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned you have revealed them to the childlike...” So being young does not prevent us from receiving God’s love and his direction.

Only God know what becomes of us and what we were thinking.

And in Him we place all our hope.

Now, in this heavy moment, we fulfill our ends by placing our trust in the God who said, Come to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.

Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart;

and you will find rest for yourselves.

For my yoke is easy, and my burden light.

It certainly doesn’t feel light, walking this dangerous road of life.

But, like children, where ought we to turn?

This is always the way, Christ is the way and our salvation, indeed He is the only one we can turn to now to heal our pain and hand Sarah over, for she is God’s first, and being baptized, she belonged to Christ since that day.

Christ, “why didn’t you save her?” Fair question, “Trust in me, for all is not lost in death, for I too died, and she has followed me in death, going through the gate which we all must walk through, but I too am the gate, and you must pass through me.”

And he will destroy on this mountain

the shroud that is cast over all peoples,

the sheet that is spread over all nations;

he will swallow up death for ever.

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces,

and the disgrace of his people he will take away from all the earth, Is 25:7-8

Which mountain?

Calvary, where we stare upon death itself!

Death of God! Death of the perfect man.

We center our lives around this moment and even celebrate a Mass to pray for Sarah.

We go back to Calvary at her death, and this is the mountain that will save us from all our tears and sadness, for all will be made new one day.

We pray for Sarah now in anticipation for her face to face judgement with our Lord.

Even though her name means Her namesake noblewoman & happy, bearing the great name of the matriarch of Israel and Margaret meaning Pearl.

Christ can make her happier than she ever was here on earth, and Christ sees more as a treasure than any of us.

Indeed, Christ came to save sinners, and delights in saving, so we pray that He sees this in her.

He died for sinners.

I pray that she made good choices in this life, living in a manner that pleased God.

And we mourn in hope, and “hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured into our hearths through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

So if you saw anything beautiful in Sarah, it was God in her you were seeing.

And hope in this everlasting beauty, not in beauty that fades, is the trust that God is a good Father, Lord of heaven and earth, and our Father is one who keeps his promises.