In the embrace of love

Being involved in the pastoral care of a Catholic parish is a special privilege that draws out many different and often surprising graces.  We are witness to and share in great moments of joy as well as times of deep sorrow.  We are naturally attracted to those joyful events of births, baptisms and marriages.  Who doesn’t like exulting in joyful affairs?  And yet, it seems that it is within the trials of loss, grieving and sorrow that we, as a faith community, come to understand the full extent of the love and caring that we have to offer to one another and that our Lord has for us.

A not so old parishioner passed away just a few days ago after suffering through cancer.  She left a ten year old daughter, an only child and a fifth grader at St. Matthew’s school.  This sweet little girl is much loved and will be cared for by close family friends.  The entire school and parish are truly in mourning at the loss.  The sorrow that is being expressed, though, seems to be primarily in recognition of the grief and sense of loss that is being experienced by one so tender and so loved. And we ponder what she knows and understands and believes . . . and will this bring her consolation?

Of course grieving like this as we do signifies that we have loved and been loved deeply.  This is confirmation for us that God has been active in our lives as we believe and know that he is the source of all love.  So we celebrate this best by sharing that love with which he has gifted us with others, especially with those who are acutely in need of it.  Nothing consoles like the offer of love.  We understand this innately and this too is God’s gift. 

The parish is a natural extension of the family, the domestic church.  This is all the more apparent when the parish, such as ours, is connected to a school in which the children of the parish live and play and learn together.  The communication of all that is happening within the families becomes a common bond for the parish family.  The joys and trials of any one family become wrapped in the embrace of the entire parish as all join in prayers of petition and thanksgiving.

To be a witness to all of this is to come to grow in the understanding of what amazing graces are showered upon the faithful parish family that animates and gives power to the love that is shared there.  Just as it is within the domestic church, so too is the parish family a school of learning where we practice our gifts of love so to ultimately share this with the larger world.  As we pray for this little girl and hold her close to us in our love, let us be mindful of all those little ones who may otherwise find themselves alone.