Today I will celebrate the memorial mass of my aunt. My mother's sister who died after a long struggle with cancer. She was 56 years young.
she leaves behind a husband of 34 years, a son who is 32 and a daughter in law along with two step grandchildren and one grandchild, 20 months old, a mother, and 8 siblings and countless nephews and nieces.
we will gather in the church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in Halletsville, Texas today at 11 am.
The family will gather, the friends will come, the coworkers shall arrive. In that little space for this brief moment of time we will seek to say goodbye to a person that truly loved to laugh.
On Dec 21 she breathed her last. In the words of the gospel, JEsus says "I will come back again and take you to myself so that where I am you also may be." Dec 21, 2010 Jesus came back.
Dec. 21 as you know is the winter solstice. It is the shortest day and the longest night on the calendar. It marks a turning point, in which the days will grow longer and nights will grow shorter. Light will increase and darkness will decrease.
In some sense, death is also a turning point. It is a reversal. One who dies in faith will encounter an increase in light and a decrease in darkness.
as St. Paul says in the second reading Rom 6:3-9, "Are you not aware that we who are baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Through baptism into his death we were buried with him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live a new life."
My aunt because of her illness knew her time was limited. She knew her earthly life was drawing to a close. She took it as opportunity to get ready.
She went to confession after being away after some time. She began to order everything accordingly, making arrangements physically and spiritually. Getting ready to welcome the arrival of Christ.
When I visited her a week before she died, I asked her what she wanted me to tell everyone at her funeral.
She paused for a moment, she looked at me, and she said these words, "Tell them thank you and that I love them."
She ended her life with a heart full of gratitude and love.
What a beautiful way to welcome Christ when he comes: Gratitude and love.
Unlike my aunt, we may not be given the opportunity to prepare with notice. So we must take every moment and make it an opportunity.
Should we not allow our hearts to be filled with gratitude and love on a daily basis for the people around us for the God who walks with us.
To many things are taken for granted. Too little time is spent giving love.
We must return to the basics of gratitude and love.
It is a beautiful way to die but also a beautiful way to live.
This way we may live out the psalm we read today , "The Lord is my shepherd there is nothing i shall want...only goodness and kindness shall follow me, all the days of my life an dI shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come ."
Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon her. Receive her soul and present her to God the most high.
We love you Aunt Doris and we will miss you. But mostly we thank you for showing us how to prepare for the coming of Christ who comes to bring us home.
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