23rd Sunday after Pentecost 13 November 2022 Death
Here are two miracles from Our Lord: a woman touching the hem of His garment, and the young girl raised to life. Two different methods of healing Our Lord used. He could have done it differently - all ways were open to Him.
He is Lord of the living and the dead (Rm 14,9). He not only has life it but is life (Jn 11,25).
We get the sense that He could work miracles all day long, and effortlessly.
Indeed we wish He would do that; for example, that He could go through a hospital or even a cemetery and restore health and life to everyone there.
But though He could do that it is not His normal way of operating.
He is working to a different plan and blessing us in another way. It is a longer-term solution. When we die we do not come back to life, not here on earth, but we live on in another way.
We do not want our loved ones to come back; rather that we go to them.
We understand that it is not always God's will that each person live the normal life span. Some people He takes early, as with many saints, especially the martyrs.
Taken too soon, we might say but what if God has uses for them somewhere else.
Did not St Therese say that she would spend her Heaven doing good on earth?
We have to stop thinking about death as death, we might say; that is, thinking about death as though it is the end of everything. It can look and feel like the end but is not so.
God wants us to entrust every person to His special care. We will miss them, but we can absorb that loss in the larger context of God's whole saving plan.
If they are saved, and we are saved, we will meet again, and the joy of that meeting will exceed by far any pain we have felt at the separation.
We cannot fathom God's will much of the time, but we can come to trust Him, which is what He most wants from us.
Our Lord is demonstrating by these miracles that He can heal the dead, the living, and the grieving – and He can work it all into the best overall outcome.
Everyone has a place prepared for us (Jn 14,3). We could miss that place, but we will make sure we do not.
God does not enjoy seeing us suffer, but He can see a lot further than we can, and will console us in the meantime.
We have two lives; we are meant to use this one to prepare
for the second one.
It is as easy as touching the hem of His garment! As easy as approaching Him and asking for the necessary help.
We express trust in Him even if we do not feel it. The feelings will come along eventually, but in the meantime we walk by faith.
Death is part of the human condition in the present phase of life. It will remain so until the Second Coming of Christ when death will be no more, and every tear wiped away (Rev 21,4).
We tend to cling to what we know, but God challenges us to let Him decide what we will have. He will give us a better Heaven than we could have designed for ourselves.
He will help us negotiate the unknown, and we will be very glad we did go His way.
In any case life for us is primarily spiritual not physical. It is, for example, better to be charitable than to be able to run fast.
To share in the divine nature requires a spiritual perspective, which will come with sufficient prayer and reflection.
First in the spirit, and then in the body, we shall live forever. Death shall be no more (Rev 21,4).
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