Spring heralds the miracles of life and death

By Mary Regina Morrell
Catholic Online

One day my Lord said to me: "Believe me, my daughter, trials are the heaviest for those my father loves the best. It is difficult to accept whatever suffering comes our way. . . but this is the cost of going where God leads us. . . into the Garden of Gethsemane and on to Calvary. And only then to Easter morning. That You May Have Life, excerpt based on writings of St. Teresa of Avila

For me, April was always the herald of spring. It brings to mind memories of childhood Easters when girls still wore white gloves, paten leather shoes and the traditional Easter bonnet. Then there were always the flowers, buds just beginning on forsythia bushes, Easter lilies and tulips on the kitchen table.

And who could forget the colored Easter eggs, changed, before the proliferation of pre-packaged dyes, to inviting marbled shades of rich orange by an old family tradition of wrapping them in onion skins.

Dressed in my Easter finery I always felt a little like the butterfly just emerging from my cocoon, transformed from the plain and ordinary to the beautiful.

Somehow it seems that Christ's Resurrection couldn't have taken place at any other time of the year but spring, a time of new growth and promise, a time of miracles and transformations.

For me spring has routinely offered consolation and peace in those moments when I felt a great fear of death. To watch the mystery of spring unfold, to experience the beauty of spring's emergence from the cold ground of winter is to hear God saying, "There is nothing to fear - all is life, all has its purpose, even death."

I often hoped spring held the same consolation for my dad, who, in spite of his deep spirituality, confronted often a brooding fear of death as a state of non-existence. It was a fear I could not help him overcome and so, at the end of his life, when it became necessary to remove him from life-support I spent many fitful nights wrestling with the decision, wondering if my own faith were strong enough for both of us.

There were times when I wished my Dad had been able to read the Catechism of the Catholic Church which teaches that "just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for-ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day."

But what does it mean to be raised up? he might have then asked.

Again, the Catechism answers, "In death, the separation of the soul from the body, the human body decays and the soul goes to meet God, while awaiting its reunion with its glorified body. God, in his almighty power, will definitively grant incorruptible life to our bodies by reuniting them with our souls, through the power of Jesus' Resurrection."

This is the resurrection of the "last day" but, until that day, God gives us little glimpses of this mystery in the little resurrections of daily life. Watch for them, in the same way that you watch for the crocus, the robin, the early morning light - like me, you will find peace and consolation in every sign of new life.

And, as I learned through being present when each of my parents died, may you know that God is present as much at the moment of death as at the moment of resurrection, when we will each discover what it means to emerge from the cocoon of human existence to the butterfly of resurrected life.

Contact

Diocese of Metuchen
http://www.diometuchen.org NJ, US
Mary Regina Morrell - Associate Director, Office of Religious Education, 732 562.1990

Email

mmorrell@diometuchen.org

Keywords

spring, miracle, life, death

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