Tempus Fugit
In my Friday post I mentioned the number of deaths there have been in the parish over the past few weeks. Today I was struck very powerfully by how quickly we as human beings move from life to death or as our Christian faith tells us, from one type of life to another. This afternoon I did something unusual for me. When asked by the hearse driver if I would like to ride with him, I said yes. Usually I drive my own car so as to be able to leave soon after the completion of the prayers at the grave. The cemetery was a traditional one, attached to a church where many other family members of the deceased are buried. Since I was riding with the funeral workers, I stayed after the family had departed to help lower the casket into the grave and to take down the chairs and tent over the grave. As we were leaving, I watched as the grave was filled with dirt and was begun to be packed down. It won’t be long before the same dirt is covered again with grass that matches the rest of the graves.
A week ago the deceased and his wife were here at St. Thomas to celebrate the liturgy for the Feast of All Souls. Today his body lies in rest with other family members at an old church cemetery. Watching the dirt cover his casket was a harsh reminder of how short our life here on earth really is. One second we are here and the next we are gone. I was also reminded by his wife at the end of today’s funeral liturgy of another truth. Though this life is short, the next one is eternal. As we were walking with the casket to the hearse she leaned over to share how much she loved the last verse of Amazing Grace, which we were just concluding. The last verse goes like this:
When we’ve been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun!
May God grant eternal rest to the recently departed of St. Thomas the Apostle.
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