Monday of the Twenty-second Week in Ordinary Time
Before sitting down to write today’s reflection I was out mowing the grass and praying about what to write – I hadn’t yet read the readings. I kept praying, “Lord, there has been so much death surrounding us recently. It’s all I think I can reflect on. If you don’t want this reflection to be about death, I need you to give me the words.”
Then I sat down to read today’s readings – and there it was – the exact reading we had heard at a dear friend’s funeral one week ago. As I read Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians I was transported back to the funeral mass – to the tears, the sorrow, the palpable grief – and then I felt it – an answer to my prayer. The Lord didn’t want me to reflect on death but rather on life – eternal life – the life we believe we are promised after death.
I don’t know about you but I am scared of death – I can honestly say that I don’t know what’s to come. I don’t know what awaits me on the other side. But that’s where faith comes in. As we are told in Hebrews 11:1, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not yet seen.” I have not seen the other side of death, but because of my faith, I hope for eternal life and believe that we will see one another again. Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians today tells us that the Lord will bring to him all those who have fallen asleep, that we will all be together again.
While this belief does not make finding a new normal easier or make the grief feel less heavy, it does do something profoundly beautiful - it gives us hope – hope for eternal life – a time when “we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them (those who have died) in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. (1 Thes. 4: 17)
It’s with this hope that I move forward. I still feel surrounded by death recently, but I also feel hopeful that this is not the end – death is not the end. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel, he has come to “bring glad tidings to the poor” (Luke 4:18). He has come not only to bring us glad tidings but to bring us eternal life. Amen.
- AJ Grimm