We do not like to talk or even think about death. Life has its burdens, but deep down we want to live it to the fullest with the people we love. It is not pleasant to think about the end.
When I was a young priest, ordained just one or two years, a parishioner at Little Flower died. He was still young – in his 40s – and left behind a wife and three children. I didn’t know the family all that well, but it was clearly a tragic event for them.
I celebrated the funeral, which went as expected, but the experience at the cemetery was difficult to watch. As I finished the prayers at the graveside, I watched as his wife quite literally wanted to jump into the grave on top of the casket. Others had to grab on to her and hold her back.
It was heartbreaking to see how extremely difficult this was for her, and I couldn’t stop thinking about it on the drive back home. I don’t know the answer, but I wondered whether she truly believed in her husband’s resurrection. Did she see the last time touching that casket as her last chance to be close to the husband she loved so much? Or did she believe that he was going home to God?
Those are important – and even eternal – questions that we should ask ourselves in the glorious Easter season. We as Catholic Christians believe that when we die on Earth, we live eternally with God in Heaven. This is the victory that Jesus won for us with his own Resurrection on Easter morning. What a gift! It allows each of us to live knowing that there is another life to come, a life that is with God and that God himself has prepared for us.
Do we fully believe this? And if so, do we take that belief for granted and not reflect on it, celebrate it, and thank God for it as much as we should?
One of the first times I reflected deeply on eternal life with God was when my father died. I was not yet 30 years old and had been a priest about three years. He had been in good health but died on the operating table as he was undergoing surgery for an aortic aneurysm. It was a difficult time for our family. I had the honor of presiding at his funeral, and I found my belief in resurrection not only confirmed but strengthened. I was grateful to God at the time for that faith, which my father had been so instrumental in shaping, and I remain deeply grateful nearly 50 years later.
I found myself reflecting deeply again on the life to come this past Lent during one week in which I participated in several funerals. We celebrated the life of a young man, just 26 years old, who died in his sleep. We celebrated another young man, 36, who died of COVID-19 after being on a ventilator for three weeks and then suffering a stroke. We celebrated still another young man who had fought a genetic disease for 14 years with phenomenal perseverance and courage. And we celebrated a local parishioner who died at just 51 after a serious stroke, leaving behind his wife and four children.
Those deaths reminded me of the pain and suffering of all who have lost loved ones. They rocked the families, the parishes, and me as well, but they did not impact my faith in resurrection or challenge my belief that when we die here on Earth, we go home to God. I was more concerned about the sadness and sorrow of parents, siblings, grandparents and friends leaning on each other and trying their best to go on without that special loved one who went home to God earlier than expected.
Times like these make me think about ways I can do a better job as a priest and be ever more helpful to those suffering loss or who are suffering themselves. They make me wonder how I can be more pastoral, more caring and more compassionate. They make me recommit to doing all I can to make sure that those who are in pain know that God and the Church care deeply about them, and that any pain they feel now is not the end of the story.
My prayer this Easter is that we truly recognize the gift we have in our absolute belief in eternal life for ourselves and those we love here on Earth. I have heard people say that Catholics really know how to celebrate a funeral, and I think they are in essence saying that Catholics believe strongly in resurrection.
We believe that death is difficult, but not final. One preface in the funeral liturgy states that life has changed, not ended. That is why we “celebrate” in a very special way. Death is a transition to the life to come, a life of eternal joy and happiness with God and our loved ones.
Perhaps that is why John 3:16 is one of the most frequently quoted Scripture verses: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him might not perish but might have eternal life.”
That is what we celebrate at Easter and at every Mass. God sent his son to conquer our sin and death through his own death and Resurrection. May we better understand the true meaning of this miraculous gift this Easter season. And may our hearts overflow with joy and gratitude that our loved ones are already home with God, and that one day Jesus will come to bring us home to the life that has been prepared for us with God and our loved ones for all eternity.
(Msgr. John Enzler, the president and CEO of Catholic Charities of The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, writes the “Faith in Action” column for the archdiocese’s Catholic Standard and Spanish-language El Pregonero newspapers and websites.)
