Typemasters

This Week in Scripture

2 November -Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed



WHY DO FOOLS...?

W hy do we mourn our dead, when we know they are in peace and light for eternity with the Lord? The book of Wisdom says, “They seemed, in the view of the foolish, to be dead” (Wisdom 3:2)—so why do we continue foolishly to mourn our dead?

Because we’re human, that’s why. Because we’re made in the image of the God who mourns loss, and who, in Christ, has given us the ultimate witness that death and loss do not have the last “word” in all of this, but that life and resurrection do. This is something that Martha, even in the midst of her mourning at her brother’s tomb, could say in confidence to Jesus when he came to share her grief and give her comfort. Today we join her in this confident expression of faith in the ultimate conquest of life over death, a victory willed by God and made present in Christ.

 

ARE YOU A FOOL?
In his letter to the Romans, Paul asks if they are unaware that baptism into Christ’s death also means baptism into resurrection. Harsh as that opening might be, Paul doesn’t tell the Romans to stop mourning their dead, he doesn’t say that their grief and tears are signs that their faith is weak or non- existent. Paul knows that he is dealing with a profound topic for the lives in his community.

So he writes a profound litany of the comfort, glory, and triumph over the grave won by God in Christ. He reminds them of their own intimate connection to this triumph, the way Christ joined their humanity in his death, and the way they were grafted onto his eternal life through their baptism. As we celebrate our Commemoration of the Faithful Departed, it is natural for us to remember, perhaps to mourn or weep a bit; but it is also natural and wise for us to rejoice and celebrate in the life that our faithful departed now share.Copyright © 2007, World Library Publications. All

 

 

 

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