Believe

In the past 4 or so months, I have had the privilege to attend two Memorial services. I say "privilege" in that to be even a tertiary participant in the send off of a soul is an honor.

Last night, I attended a Memorial service at a non-denominational church in the burbs and during the Summer I attended the funeral at a Baptist church in the inner-city.

As different as these two "Celebrations of Life" were from one another and from what I am accustomed to (in the Latin Rite Catholic Tradition), in the end all differences, whether cultural or denominational vanish as the corporeal "reality" gives way to matters of the metaphysical.

The message that resounds resplendently among the Christian Traditions is remarkable: Ultimate Hope and Trust in the Infinite Mercy of our Creator... trust in the Lord's Promise to those who believe in Him... that we should know Paradise.

The fact of The Ultimate Sacrifice made on our behalf and for our benefit - that of the Sacrifice of the Christ for our sins, whereby we are reconciled with God, the Creator - points to an Author who truly and wholly and without reservation loves His creatures beyond measure. That the sins of Mankind, in all of their depth and breadth and twisted gracelessness, could only be washed away by something greater. That the severity of the accumulated sins from the beginning of time and the present value of all future sins yet to be committed could be washed away in only one manner - by the sacrifice of God at the hands of Man - puts the Glory of God in perspective.

The message is one of amazing Grace. Truly. But that we may believe in the Christ and strive to persevere in our belief and towards Christian Perfection - knowing full well we are incapable of achieving it - enables us to follow the Christ, through His Grace, to Everlasting Life. We are invited, each and every one of us, to forsake the binds of the physical and temporal... to live into our Baptism created anew and robed in the perfection of the Christ... sanctified and bound to the Cross with Him. If we choose to remain tied to the Cross, we are taken to Calvary, Crucified with Him, and God willing, rise to Eternal Life.

This is a Pilgrim's road that we travel. A road of rogues, distractions, temptations, opportunities to commit sin, twists and turns, muddy, rutted well-worn tracks deepened and widened by thieves and harlots, sinful thoughts and words. But that we keep an eye on the Light emitting from the Grace of Holy Spirit in the Living Word, we are lost and cannot find our way. But if we believe and persevere, we are promised that no matter what we will find our way to the Narrow Gate at the end of a Bridge.

And there we will find our Maker's banquet hall - her doors swung wide open to welcome her tired pilgrims home.

In the case of the young woman who was brutally murdered, echoes of the Negro Spirituals could be heard in the song given to God. In the case of the young man struck down before his prime by an unrelenting disease, the tone was modern. But the message delivered was the same. Death is Freedom for those who believe. The end to the temporal is Eternity for those who believe.

At his memorial, the reverend read a message from Steven V. Prior to his death, the pastor asked him: "What would you like me to tell those who attend your send-off?" Steven paused for a second... and where others might be tempted to the long-winded end of the spectrum given the opportunity to deliver a "message from the grave" to a truly captive audience, Steven said only one word. That is, there was only one word he thought important enough to share with us...

He said, "Believe!"