"In the course of catecheses on the family, today we take
direct inspiration from the episode narrated by the Evangelist Luke,
which we have just heard (cf. Luke 7:11-15). It is a very
moving scene, which shows us Jesus’ compassion for one who suffers -- in
this case a widow who has lost her only son -- and it shows us also
Jesus’ power over death.
"Death is an experience that concerns all families, without
any exception. It is a part of life and yet, when it touches family
affections, death never seems to appear to us as natural. For parents,
to survive their children is something particularly excruciating, which
contradicts the elementary nature of relations that give meaning to the
family itself....And the child that remains alone, because of
the loss of a parent, or of both, also suffers something similar....
"In the People of God, with the grace of His compassion
given in Jesus, many families demonstrate with facts that death does not
have the last word. And this is a real act of faith....
"We can console one another in this faith, knowing that the
Lord has conquered death once and for all....
"To be born and reborn in hope! – this is what faith gives
us. However, I would like to underscore the last phrase of the Gospel we
heard today. After Jesus brings this young man back to life, son of the
mother who was a widow, the Gospel says: 'Jesus gave him to his
mother.' And this is our hope! All our dear ones who have gone -- all --
the Lord will restore to us and we will meet together with them. And
this hope does not disappoint. Let us remember well this gesture of
Jesus! 'Jesus gave him to his mother.' Jesus will do this with all our
dear ones in the family.
"This faith, this hope protects us from the nihilist view of
death, as well as from the false consolations of the world, so that the
Christian truth 'does not risk mixing itself with mythologies of
various sorts,' yielding to rites of superstition, ancient or modern”
(Benedict XVI, Angelus, November 2, 2008).
"Today it is necessary that Pastors and all Christians
express more concretely the meaning of faith in dealing with the
family’s experience of bereavement. The right to weep should not be
denied. We must weep in mourning. Jesus also 'wept and was 'profoundly
moved' by the grave mourning of a family he loved (John 11:33-37).
Rather, we can draw from the simple and strong witness of so many
families who, in the very hard passage of death, were also able to pick
up the secure passage of the Lord, crucified and risen, with his
irrevocable promise of the resurrection of the dead. The work of the
love of God is stronger than the work of death. It is precisely of that
love of which we must make ourselves active 'accomplices' with our
faith! And let us remember that gesture of Jesus: 'And Jesus gave him to
his mother.' He will do this with all our dear ones and with us when we
shall meet, when death is definitively defeated in us -- and defeated
by the cross of Jesus.
No comments:
Post a Comment