Lest We Grieve

Lest anyone, who read my last post about the seventh century monk, be sad about anyone they know who has died, I have to share with you some other thoughts. First of all, I believe that we can never look at the greatest sinner on earth and judge that person's soul. Jesus himself said, "Judge not." We can say that was a heinous crime that someone committed, but we can't know what was in his heart, and we especially can't know what was in his heart a day later, even a moment later. God's time is not like our time, and it takes only an instant - an instant that we can't even measure - for someone to turn to God with his whole heart and soul.

According to the Church, we don't know the precise moment at which the soul leaves the body. It is not necessarily the same moment at which the person is pronounced dead. So, what happens during those moments between when the person is no longer conscious of this world and yet is not quite in the next one? Ah, with what love must Our Lord, then, meet that soul...Our Loving Lord who died on the cross so that each one of us could be saved!

Let us pray for sinners on earth, that they may return to God, that they may trust in His great love...that we may trust in His great love. But let us simply trust in His great mercy for those we know who have died.