Let the Father Tell You Who You Are
by Father Brian J. Soliven on Sunday June 30, 2024
It may be strange to say this but we were never meant to die. In fact, death is unnatural. We have grown so accustomed to thinking that dying is a part of what it means to be a human being, as if it's part of our nature, like breathing oxygen. Not for us Christians. We have an entirely different way of approaching the “end.” “God did not make death”, says the author in the Book of Wisdom. He reveals that this death that strikes fear in the hearts of men was not originally part of God’s plan for us. Could this be why funerals are so painful? We intrinsically desire to be with our loved ones forever. We can even say an echo of eternity burns in each of us, made incarnate in the person that we love. As proof of this, look in awe as a parent holds their newborn child in their arms for the very first time. You can catch a glimpse of this eternity in their eyes. They long to pause this moment, long into perpetuity, perpetually, and preciously. Yet man must frustratingly surrender, sooner or later. He must throw up his arms in defeat, knowing that death will always catch up, regardless of how many fruits and vegetables I eat. Death wins. Or does it?