Dear Friends,
Last week I had the sad honor of presiding over a funeral Mass for a former parishioner. Afterward, I had a few minutes to connect to the funeral director whom I hadn’t seen in some time.
He’d just become Catholic—and he was ecstatic!
He told me his story. While many factors and graces contributed to his conversion, one of the most significant was the way we Catholics deal with Death. “Father,” he said, “having worked in the funeral business for decades, I can tell you, Catholics do it the best. They deal with Death the best.”
When I asked him what he meant, he said, “Catholics grieve, but they grieve as people who have hope. Real hope.” I suspect he knew well he was actually quoting St. Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians: “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers, about those who have fallen asleep, so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.”
Paul is writing to the young Christian community in Thessalonica (around A.D. 51). Some of their members have died, and the Thessalonians are grieving and anxious. They had expected the Lord’s return to happen quickly, and they were unsure what would happen to believers who died before that day. Would those who had “fallen asleep” miss out on the resurrection and the Lord’s coming?
After telling them not to grieve like others, he grounds their hope in Jesus’ own death and resurrection: “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose, so too will God, through Jesus, bring with him those who have fallen asleep” (v. 14).
He then describes the Lord’s coming (the parousia): the dead in Christ will rise first, and those still alive will be caught up together with them to meet the Lord (vv. 15–17).
He concludes, “Therefore, console one another with these words” (v. 18).
We set aside the month of November to pray for our beloved dead and to prepare for our own deaths. But we shouldn’t be anxious. Jesus loves us, and will care for us. So we are serious in repentance, unworried in our trust in God, and joyful that the best is yet to come.
With gratitude and joy for the days ahead!
Fr. Seth