Bereavement in the family was the theme of His Holiness Pope
Francis' catechesis during the 17 June 2015 General Audience in St. Peter's
Square, attended by more than fifteen thousand people.
“Death
is an experience that affects all families, without exception. It is part of
life; however, when it touches someone close to us, it never appears natural to
us. For parents, the loss of a child … is an affront to the promises, gifts and
sacrifices of love joyfully offered to the life we have brought into being. The
whole family is paralysed, silenced. And a child suffers something similar when
he or she is left alone by the loss of one or both parents. The emptiness and
abandonment that opens up inside the child is even more distressing on account
of the fact that he does not have the sufficient experience to 'give a name' to
what has happened. In these cases death is like a black hole that opens up in
the life of families, for which we are unable to give any explanation. And at
times we even reach the point of blaming God”.
“But
many people – and I understand them – become angry with God, and blaspheme.
'Why have you taken my son, my daughter from me? There is no God, God does not
exist! Why has He done this to me?'. But this anger arises from great pain; the
loss of a son or a daughter, a father or mother, is an immense pain. … In these
cases, death seems like a hole”.
Thanks
to God's compassion given to us in Jesus, “many families demonstrate in their
actions that death does not have the last word. Every time that a bereaved
family – even terribly – finds the strength to keep the faith and love that
unite us to those whom we love, it prevents death from claiming everything. The
darkness of death must be faced with more intense love. In the light of the
Resurrection of the Lord, Who never abandons any of those whom the Father has
entrusted to Him, we can remove the 'sting' from death, as the apostle Paul said;
we can prevent it from poisoning life, from spoiling our affections, from
making us fall into the darkest emptiness. In this faith, we are able to
console each other, knowing that the Lord has defeated death once and for all.
Our dear ones have not disappeared into the darkness of nothing: hope assures
us that they are in the good and strong hands of God. Love is stronger than
death”, the Pope emphasised. If we let ourselves be supported by this faith,
“the experience of bereavement can generate a stronger solidarity in family
ties, a new openness to the suffering of other families, a new fraternity with
those families who are born and reborn in hope”.
Faith
gives us birth and rebirth in hope, reiterated Francis, recalling the passage
from the Gospel in which Jesus revives the widower's son, restoring him to his
mother. “This is our hope”, he exclaimed. “Jesus will restore to us all our
dear ones who have passed away, He will return them to us and we will meet them
again. … Let us remember this gesture of Jesus … as the Lord will do the same
with the loved ones in our family”.
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