Mtr Mary Trainor

Dear friend,

Many great and comforting words have been offered on the subject of death. Some of those great and comforting words are offered in scripture appointed for this day, the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed.

For example:
From Psalm 116. “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his servants.”
From Isaiah 25: “Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces…”
From Wisdom: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God…”
From 1 Corinthians: “We will not all die, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye…”

And yet, for all the words offered, we humans can at best only circle around this final mystery, death. In this way, death is like love in that words never completely capture the fullness of either.

Mostly, we glance at death sideways, unable to look square-on. When death announces itself unavoidably in our path, we may no longer be able to put our thoughts into words. Or maybe words are no longer relevant because God’s Spirit now informs our understanding.

I was moved when recently reading Jan Richardson’s*  poem, “God of the Living: A Blessing”—

When the wall between the worlds is too firm, too close.
When it seems all solidity and sharp edges.

What lies beyond this life is a marvelous mystery impossible to grasp fully as embodied beings. Even at the moment of death, when the last breath is taken, and the next breath fails to come, it takes a moment for those standing near to realize that no more breaths will follow.

Whatever the struggle for life may have been, however sudden or slow the process, in that final moment it is always the same. One last breath. Then, release from the need for another breath.

Death, like love, is perhaps best left to the poets. Prose cannot possibly touch the full truth of either. Neither death nor love lends itself to didactic approach.

When every morning you wake as if flattened against [the wall],
its forbidding presence fairly pressing the breath
from you all over again.

The prophet Isaiah writes that God “will destroy on this mountain the shroud that is cast over all peoples, the sheet that is spread over all nations; he will swallow up death forever.”

What limits our understanding is like a shroud, a sheet spread over us, obscuring our view. In death, nothing blocks our vision. The Apostle Paul captures this idea beautifully in 1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV): "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face….”

Then may you be given a glimpse of how weak the wall
and how strong what stirs on the other side, breathing with you and blessing you still...

In the presence of God, when the sheet is lifted, we bear no scars, no paralysis, no blindness, no deafness, no disease, no addiction, no anger, no resentment, no depression, no grief, no loneliness, no insecurity, no anxiety, no pain.

Mtr. Mary

In honor of All Souls...perhaps I will see you tonight at the Commemoration of All Faithful Departed. The Requiem Mass begins at 7:00pm..

*Copyright Jan Richardson, from The Cure for Sorrow: A Book of Blessings for Times of Grief