Jesus of Nazareth, the Risen Christ in Glory, and the Father, working together in the power of the Holy Spirit, have ensured that sin and death have no ultimate power over us, no matter what we may face in our lives. As we participate in the Eucharist and engage God in the actions of our lives, God places his own awesome power over sin and death at the center of our lives.
Once you and I can feel assured that God is truly Emmanuel – God with us – and that his love pours this power into our lives, we can come to realize that we don’t have to be afraid. We can face the challenges of each day in the assurance of God’s love and power at the center of our lives. “By your cross and resurrection you have set us free…!” we say in the mass when the priest asks us to “proclaim the mystery of our faith.”
This does not mean, of course, that we will never face opposition or challenge again. Quite the contrary. Our lives, spent building his Kingdom, will always attract opposition from those motivated by envy, self-importance, and personal gain. The more dedicated to the Kingdom we become, the stronger this opposition can be.
But as we make the cross of Christ and sacrifice of Christ central to our own lives, we can receive God’s sustaining help in the face of trial.
The Good News of Christ is that his Resurrection is also central to our lives. And so we can count not only on his presence in the face of trial but also that he will pull us through these trials into fuller and more abundant life. The Lord does this for us, just as the Father pulled the Son through sin and death into the fullness of resurrected life.
My father always feared death and so always contemplated suicide. But in his hour of trial his attempt at suicide failed on a dark, cold, forbidding January day. Nonetheless, he entered into death with ample pain-relieving medication and his family around him. The next morning the sun shone brightly, the cold air was crisp, and the feeling was one of renewal and rebirth. And so it was. The Lord in his love had led my father through death into new life, just as he had led my family and me through the death of our father into new life. The brilliant sunlight was the Lord’s testimony to us that he – the Lord of Heaven and Earth – had triumphed once more over human fear, limitation, and death.
So, it is as we celebrate the Eucharist. “Lord, I am unworthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed.” And so we are.
2 comments:
re: Being Afraid.
I am so sad to read of your father's death and struggle with passing on. Many,many have that fear, I am learning, as the time arrives.
I saw the St Therese movie and it caused me to read a book of the last moments before her death. And right now I am reading the last travel diary of M.Basil Pennington and the forward told of his last words during his painful suffering before death ,"I've had enough". Two weeks before that he surrenderingly said, "I give my self over completely to God's will, and to the Love of Jesus and Mary".
I lost my mother to cancer when I was a teenager..the pain and mutilation she went through was unspeakable! One evening we went to see her in the hospital. Before my Dad left she told him secretly and out of the blue (she was not that near death, so we thought), "I am going to be with Christ". She passed quietly into the arms of the angels that night on the operating table in an emergency operation.
I try to serve my parish by visiting and ministering to the home bound and the aged. As I get older and approach this later part of my life, I see that what most people fear about death is the PAIN! Physical pain. It brings on such a dark night and makes one feel "My God, My God...why have You forsaken me?"
I appreciate the Scriptures as there is not one instance of my life where I can't find a place where Jesus hasn't gone through any thing I haven't gone through. It may not be the exact scenario, but there were instances where His emotions were the same; emotional pain,physicalpain, abandonment,lonliness,hunger, thirst,dark night of soul and spirit, And He always gives me HOPE! He's walked in my shoes.(I am trying to walk in His as He sends the trials for perfection!LOL))
So, thank you Fr. Ben for this reminder as I read today that I DON"T HAVE TO BE AFRAID of anything...even the dark night that may come before that Glorious Departure.
"But as we make the cross of Christ and sacrifice of Christ central to our own lives, we can receive God’s sustaining help in the face of trial."
THAT IS MY PRAYER.
Our Lady....pray for us...now, and at that hour. ....amen
teresa_anawim
Amen Teresa. Well said.
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