The death of a member of his family or of a loved friend, must be the
saddest event imaginable in the life of an atheist. He is one who
really is convinced that there is no God, no future life and therefore
that the relative or friend is to turn into dust in the grave, never to
be met with again. The thought that every day that passes is bringing
him too nearer to that same sad fate, death, which will be the end of
all his ambitions, all his enjoyments, the end of everything he thought
he was or had, must be something hard to live with.
Thank God, we
have the good fortune to know, and reason and faith convince us of this
truth, that death is not the end of man. It is rather the real
beginning. Today's feast—the Ascension of our Lord in his human
nature—to his Father's and our Father's home, is the confirmation and
the guarantee of this doctrine of our faith. We shall all rise from the
grave with new, glorified bodies and ascend to heaven, as Christ did.
There we'll begin our true life of eternal happiness.
While it is
true that even for good Christians the death of a beloved one is a
cause of sorrow and tears, this is natural as we still are of the earth
earthly. Yet the certitude that our beloved one has gone to his true
life and will be there to meet us when our turn comes, is always at the
back of our minds to console and comfort us. What all human beings want
is to live on forever with our dear ones. Death breaks that continuity
but only for a little while. That break is necessary for the new life to
begin.
It is only in heaven that this natural desire of an
unending life with all those we love can be realized and death on earth
is the door to that eternal life.
Look up to heaven today. See
Christ ascending to his Father and our Father. Say : Thank you, God, for
creating me, and for giving me, through the Incarnation of your beloved
Son, the possibility and the assurance that if I do my part here, when
death comes it will not be an enemy but a friend, to speed me on my way
to the true, supernatural life which you have, in your love, planned and
prepared for me.
It was written, and foretold, that Christ should
suffer and so enter into his glory. The servant is not above the
Master. I too must suffer. I too must accept the hardships and the
trials of this life, if I want, and I do, to enter into the life of
glory. Christ, who was sinless, suffered hardship and pain. I have
earned many, if not all of my hardships, by my own sins. I should be
glad of the opportunity to make some atonement for my past offenses, by
willingly accepting the crosses he sends me. These crosses are signs of
God's interest in my true welfare. Through him he is giving me a chance
to prepare myself for the day of reckoning, for the moment of my death
which will decide my eternal future. For every prayer I say for success
in life, I should say three for a successful death, a death free from
sin and at peace with God.
Excepted from The Sunday Readings, Fr. Kevin O'Sullivan, O.F.M.
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