Fr. Don's Daily Reflection - October 6, 2024
Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from You.”
In a large room crowded with several hundred happy and excited alumni milling around before brunch – after all they're seeing old friends – it's a bit unusual to find oneself with a fifty-year old, successful businessman in tears. Everyone else seems to be talking about the football game or recalling crazy events from the past. It's actually hard to carry on the conversation, he is so full of tears. My amazement shows and he says: "I've just come from a visit to the cemetery. Seeing the graves of so many of my old profs and friends (brothers, priests, classmates who taught in the college) ...." More tears.
It's touching to see his feelings about the death of these people and, too, I suspect, really about the relentless passage of time. In the midst of so much enjoyment of the present, of friends, the mellow fall weather, blue skies and brilliant trees, mortality is a poignant thought. No matter how strong our belief in resurrection, new life beyond the grave, it's hard, at least in health and the prime of life, to accept an end to all this. While we're on the way to accepting – if we ever do – the fleeting character of all we prize, we could do a lot worse than shed some tears over it.
Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”
