Thursday of the Fifth Week
As I place myself into today’s gospel, I focus on Jesus’ words: “Amen, Amen I say to you, whoever keeps my word will never see death.” I muse to myself: “What can that possibly mean?” Jesus continues speaking to the Jews, describing how he knew Abraham. But now they begin to challenge his very sanity. “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham? Who do you make yourself out to be?” To their confusion Jesus answered, “Before Abraham came to be, I AM.” Did Jesus have a life the Jews knew nothing about…a life outside the one he lived in this body they were preparing to stone?
And now, a week before Holy Thursday, I find myself remembering the death of my own mother and sister, knowing how grounded they both were in His word and yet they are gone. I miss them, often wondering why they had to die so young. But I remember them daily and celebrate the love that exists (yes, exists in present tense) between us. And I realize that there are in a sense two deaths: the one that takes our body and the other that takes our spirit. Jesus was talking of the latter. It reminds me of a conversation I had with my grandson who was missing his recently deceased great-grandfather, knowing he would never see him again. Death is such a hard thing to explain to young children. But I found myself saying: “He will always love you because love doesn’t die.” Yes, it lives on forever “in those that hear God’s voice and harden not their hearts.”
Prayer
Lord, help me remember all those who have gone before me with gratitude for the love they shared and their continual presence in my life. Amen.
Mary Dennison
Worshipping Community
First Reading: Genesis 17:3-9
Psalm 105:4-9
Gospel: John 8:51-59
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