Does eternal life refer only to the hereafter or can it also refer to the herebefore and to all that is in between? Has life always been and will it always be? How can we conceive of the mystery of life? It is a miracle, revealing all that is delicate and yet so very enduring. We try to make sense of it. We consider Adam and Eve and hydrogen helium interactions; as we consider heaven and hell and black holes. We ponder life’s possible beginnings as well as death’s potential endings while we live within their eternal weave.
Every once and awhile the seamlessness of the weave is especially apparent. Once, while working as a live-in volunteer at a homeless shelter, a man who was not so very old, was quite sick but refusing to go to a hospital. He agreed to come stay with us. His decline over the next couple of weeks was steady and rather difficult. He spoke of regrets; love lost, and love never given. He mourned his own passing as he was sure no one would celebrate his living. There was, providentially so, a woman in the neighborhood who was happily pregnant. In the flow of the beginnings and endings that make for the mystery and miracle of eternal life, on the same day we held Ralph as he died, little Shantell was held in the arms of her mother. Everyone in the community did their best to love them both and so, years later, they live on.
“My work is loving the world. Here the sunflowers, there the hummingbird … to be given a mind and a heart ,,, a mouth with which to give shouts of joy … telling them all, over and over, how it is that we live forever.” (My Work is Loving the world – Mary Oliver)
Prayer: Spirit of Life, we give thanks for the love poured out into our hearts.
Question: Who are the faithful departed who have eternal life because of the love we shared?
November 2, 2014 Gospel John 6:37-40 All Souls – The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed