Jesus Tells Us That More is Happening Than Just Our Letting Go When Someone Dies

Jesus Tells Us That More is Happening Than Just Our Letting Go When Someone Dies

There  is an ancient and beautiful prayer reflecting on the loss of a loved one and turning to God.

It begins beautifully. We seem to give them back to you O God . . . Who first gave them to us. We seem . . . The simple truth is God Who has given them . . . has never taken His hand off them. They have always been His.

The prayer catches a beautiful note on leave taking. We are saying good-bye. We are letting go. In a real way, especially as we accompany a person through the difficult stages of having a chronic illness, there is a lot of leave taking and saying good-bye.

Yet our Gospel reading (scripture of Jesus raising from the dead the only son of a mother) goes beyond this prayer and saying good-bye. In the Gospel, a remarkable scene is described, as a mother, friends and neighbors march in a funeral procession. They are shedding their tears of sadness and loss. They are crying their good-byes.

As they move forward, the Lord arrives. We do not reflect on this part of the scene enough.  Precisely at the moment of leave taking, the Lord is pleased to introduce Himself. One of the powerful moments of a Funeral Mass, or Memorial Mass, is not merely a leave taking. It is the moment, in our grief and all that we have gone through, we encounter Christ. And, that changes things. When the Lord is present, everything becomes different.

The Lord Says There is More Happening Here Than You Realize

In the scripture, the Lord stops because He is moved. St. Luke points out that Jesus does not stop because of the young man. Our Lord is moved by the grief of the mourners, especially the mother. The Lord heard the weeping, and He stopped. The Lord tells the mother to stop crying. He is not saying, get over it. He did not say your tears have no value to Me. It is the Lord saying that there is more happening here than you realize. The Lord stops the movement of grief for a moment. He places His hand on the coffin. The Lord says, young man, I tell you, arise.

During this month in which we honor and pray for our deceased loved ones, hear what happens when Jesus arrives at a Memorial or Funeral Mass. Listen to this Meditation Media on what happens when a person dies.