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November 11, 2007
Pastor’s Perspective
November brings drastic change ~ a last blaze of color in the
trees and hills, gray skies and the first snowfall. All around us
creation is teaching us about the Paschal mystery – about death and
resurrection. Just as Autumn gives way to the death of Winter it
also points us to the hope of Spring.
In the Church too, our
focus is on dying and rising. We celebrate the Feast of All
Souls. Our remembrance Mass, and the readings of the end of the
Church year leads us to reflect on the end time.
The readings today are certainly appropriate for the month of
November. As we recall those who have died and gone before us in
faith, we are encouraged by the example of the mother and her seven
sons who were martyred at the hands of the Syrian King Antiochus.
Even before the time of Jesus, these Jewish martyrs professed
their trust in God’s promise of resurrection. “It is my choice to
die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by
him,” the fourth son says before he dies.
In the time of Jesus, though, the Sadducees did not believe in
the resurrection, as their question to Jesus in today’s Gospel
indicates. The answer Jesus gives reveals his own belief in life
beyond death. Those who have lost loved ones to death often
find their faith in resurrection challenged by their grief. It is
sometimes hard to trust in Christ’s promise when death seems so final
and devastating. The rites of Christian burial attempt to
strengthen the faith of the grieving, especially by offering the
support of the faith community.Fr. Lawrence Mick
It
always seems to me that the funeral of a Christian is mostly for we who
survive. It draws our attention to the central mystery of our
faith and nourishes that faith with the promise of the Risen Christ
that we will be born anew into eternal life with Him.
Peace,
Fr. Chuck
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