Reflection on the Passing of a Friend

We know, but often put aside, that our faith is entwined in our ordinary lives, if fact our faith enlivens life and never more so than at death. Death reveals the Christian tension that all the faithful feel.

We give thanks and praise to God for the gift of life, in it rich textures and diversity with all its joys and sorrows. But, we give greater thanks and greater glory to God for the gift of eternal life.

 In the face of death the Church proclaims that God has created us, not for death, but for eternal life, and that Jesus destroyed death by his Cross and resurrection.This is our faith and our hope. This was Mario’s Faith and Hope.

But, as I look out at family and friends I recall that our Joy in the truth of eternal life is tempered by sorrow of human loss.  We simple miss Mario or as I would say uncle Mar.  As human persons we form bonds and relationships, we care and are cared for, we love and are loved. We marry, create families, we build communities, we cook and we whistle. And in the midst life, we seem to be always, caught by surprise by the very human reality of death, with its mysterious finality and its real sense of loss, with its sadness and anger. We grieve at the loss of Mario; husband, father, Grandfather, brother, uncle, friend because it seems so final, so removed from this world. But, as concrete as this earthly reality seems to be – it is only a passing thing, as impermanent as a mere breath.

What does not pass away is the Body of Christ the Communion of Saints made up of believers, Uncle Mar, you and me, all the baptized faithful who have ever been, that are now and that will be, gathered together as one.  And in communion with the transcendent Christ; his body sustains eternal life in everlasting relationship with all those we love. Simply said – in Christ - we lose no one and no one is lost.  Mario is not lost to us.

I have heard a lot of stories about Mario.  Human memory is a good thing, but I remind myself

 that "remembrance", as a gift of the Holy Spirit, is not simply a memory of some fact or incident.

For Christians, for us here today, remembering, in the Spirit, is a living, always new, action that makes Mario present in our lives.  Not as a fading memory, but as a spiritual reality. It is a mystery of Grace.

In remembering in the Holy Spirit Mario lives in us as never before, deeper in the mystery of the heart of each one of us who loved him.  

I will always remember the easy going, joyful charm of Uncle Mar, but perhaps I will remember more than those last few days of his life in the hospital surrounded by doctors, nurses and technology, but more importantly and more moving, surrounded by family and I mean surrounded. Uncle Mar had all the right in the world to be a little down, but he was far from it. Those last days Uncle Mar was as good natured, and calm and accepting, which is not being resigned. You could see by his very being, his spirit and his faith were intact.

We live the Christian tension as we mourn today for human loss but, we also are joyful that Mario has run the race well and has received his crown and so lives anew with God, along with His Son and the Holy Spirit, and with all the angels and saints in heaven.