On November 2nd
this past Sunday, at my Masses I preached about this list of names right here
on this worn piece of loose-leaf paper. This
past Sunday, there were 146 names on this piece of paper, and I preached about
how, every night, I pray for all of these 146 people who are deceased, but then
I also ask all of them to pray for me.
Now there are 147 people on this list as I have added Maia Amador to
this list.
And that is a very
beautiful teaching of our Catholic Faith…we can pray for those who have died, but
we believe that they can also pray for us.
In fact, on my drive up here this morning, I was praying and asking Maia
to give me the words this morning to bring all who were going to be at this
funeral a deep sense of peace and comfort.
Our first reading
this morning was from the 2nd Chapter of the Book of Wisdom. In the first chapter of Wisdom, it says “God
did not make death, nor does He rejoice in the destruction of the living”. One of the reasons that God allows anything
bad to happen is that He has plans to bring something even better out of that
tragedy. I can only speak for myself,
but I know that I have become a better Catholic in watching the Amador family,
and all who are here this morning helping each other and Maia carry her cross. I know that I have grown even closer to Jesus
in just watching this all play out from a distance.
In our 2nd
reading today from St. Paul’s 2nd letter to Timothy we heard Saint
Paul say “the time of my departure is at hand. I have competed well; I have finished the
race; I have kept the faith. From now on the crown of righteousness awaits
me, which the Lord, the just judge, will award to me on that day.” This was written right before Paul’s death,
early in on Paul’s career though, he wrote in his First Letter to the Corinthians,
and I am paraphrasing here, “I am not aware of anything that would keep me out
of Heaven, but I don’t presume to say that I am going to Heaven”. (1 Cor. 4:3-4)
So what
changed? It is clear that as St. Paul
approached his death, he was given a clear message from Jesus that he would in
fact be entering Heaven. And to hear the
stories of a lot of you all who are here this morning, it is pretty clear that
Maia had some sort of similar message from Jesus near the end of her life.
So where does that
leave all of us? In our Gospel this
morning, Jesus says to each of us “Come to me, all you who labor and are
burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew
11:28) At a previous assignment, I have the standard 3 foot tall sidewalk signs
that you see out in front of most coffee shops with this quote from Jesus “come
to me, all you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest” and then
the sign invited everyone to come in. And
over the years, I heard from a lot of non-Catholics that they appreciated the
invitation because they didn’t think they were allowed in. They all also reported experiencing a great
peace in our Church; we who are here this morning know why that is; we know
that Jesus dwells in every Tabernacle in every Catholic Church in the world. So anytime we are particularly struck with
sadness or grief at Maia’s death, let us come to the Catholic Church or an
adoration Chapel and give our burdens over to the Lord, and we will experience
a great sense of peace and rest because Christ is always faithful and keeps
every one of His promises!
May Maia’s soul,
and the souls of the faithful departed, through the Mercy of God, rest in
peace. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment