What an odd experience it is. Today I visited one of my parishioner families that just had their first baby; it was truly a joy to be there with them. Then, this evening, I visited another family to try to comfort them as their father and husband was leaving this world. Life, and death, on the same day. It is odd, and also amazing to see God's hand in these things. He encourages with life, and He comforts with death; He is always present. I do not even want to imagine what these things would be like without His presence. Yet, I am somewhat forced to do so.
Our society is riding a train with no brakes, and it is heading towards a cliff where the bridge is out. So many people care little to nothing about new life, and they want to snuff it out even unto those last moments when it is about to come from the womb. At the same time (and in the same way) they have no hope at the end of life. From numerous different philosophical viewpoints, we have been told for decades now that life really does not matter (and for more than a century we have been told that life is just an accidental conglomeration of cells) so having lost hope for life, they claim that there is no reason to seek to maintain it.
Hope for life is so fundamental to our humanity that we as Christians almost take it for granted until it is forced into our faces. The world wants us to forget hope and just throw up our hands with Nietzsche. The question is not whether we will do so, but whether we are accepting and believing those theories and ideas that move us in that direction. If we merely take God's word at face value and accept all that it tells us (without allowing science to catechize us) then we will see that life is not accidental. We will see that life must be protected from the point of conception and that when life reaches its end, there can be hope if we know where to look.
What an odd experience it was. This afternoon I held a baby that was less than eight hours old. This evening I touched a life that was over 80 years old, right before it ended. Life--ushered in, and escorted out by God and His angels; it is remarkable in how fragile it is, as well as how precious it is. I am reminded of the episode of that series "Lost" where a baby is born to one of the main characters at the same time that another character is dying; and right after the music that is playing is a tune called "Life and Death". Each one precious; each one in God's hands.
Do we sense the tenderness of life each day? We need to realize that God's caring hand is on us in each of those moments, just as much as that baby when he was born, and that man when he died. It is vital for us to recognize the hand of God in the trials, the pains, and even the mundane moments. I counseled someone recently who was asking about suicide. He had forgotten about the hand of God in his life. When we despair of hope, it is always because we have forgotten (or ignored) the hand of God. Seeing Him working with us, and for us, is what makes everything different. It is what enables us to look beyond the cloud of confusion that the devil throws at us, and instead see that we are here because God has put us here. That alone can make life, and death, all worth it.
