On behalf of the Catholic community, we wish to offer our condolences to your family for the loss.  We hope that our prayers will be a source of comfort and consolation for your family. And that our presence will express our love for you and help to lift up your spirit.

 

Jesus says: "Bless are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”  Why on earth would Jesus say something like that?  Doesn’t he know that no one likes to lose someone they love?  No one wants to mourn.  We always want everything to be peaceful and happy.   

So how is it that a person can be blessed when they are mourning the loss of someone?  We must interpret this in the context of hope. 

The early followers of Jesus saw him rising from the dead after three days.  Although they did not fully understand, they knew in the back of their mind, that if they stay connected to Christ, whatever happened to him will also happen to his followers.

Jesus continued to offer hope to his followers when he said: "I will go and prepare a place for you.  Where I am you shall be.  Where I am you will know the way."

A good question to ask: “Can anyone take away our hope?”  Or can our hope disappear?  Yes, only if we allow a person/people, or even events to take away the hope.  

But the truth is that we have a lot of control over the gift of hope that God gives us; we have more control than we realize. 

True freedom is when we realize that no matter what happens, we still have hope because of Jesus’ rising from the dead after three days.  We have hope because we believe in something that we cannot see with our physical eyes, but only with the eyes of faith.  We believe that there is an afterlife, a more beautiful place than the one we have here.  It is not so that we can rush from this place to the next, but when our time here on earth is completed, we are prepared for the transition into eternal life.  And prepared to be united with our loved ones in the heavenly Kingdom and eternal paradise. 

May your hope always be strengthened in Christ.  Hope in God, Praise Him still, Our Savior and our God.