This weekend in Mount Merrion and Kilmacud we gather to remember those who died and were buried from our parishes during the past year. Of all the Masses to commemorate the faithful departed during November this is perhaps the most moving.
The families who are bereaved have been invited to gather at home, light a candle, maybe display a favourite picture and then tune into the webcam on the parish website at 7.30pm Sunday Nov 8th in Mount Merrion.
Members of the parish funeral ministry team have prepared the liturgy with thoughtful prayers and words, signs and symbols. The lighting of candles, allows the most powerful symbol of all to bring us out of darkness and into radiance of God’s glorious promise.
A candle was lit when these members of our families were baptised, and parents and godparents were asked to keep it burning brightly. These men and women and children were the light of our lives, sharing their gifts and talents, their strengths and weaknesses with us in unconditional love.
When they died it felt like a light had gone out, that life couldn’t be as bright and beautiful again, and indeed the darkness that we can experience in grief and loss can and is deep. But our faith lifts us from the depths of despair and invites us to see the light again, their light, bright and beautiful in the house of the Father.
Jesus has said in the Gospel that he has gone before us, to sit at the right hand of the Father and that he will return and take us with him, ‘Where I am you will be also’. It was the promise made to the good thief who died along side the Lord on Calvary, and it is the same destination that awaits all the redeemed.
For those who have passed through death and entered eternal life, gone is not forgotten, out of sight is not out of mind. An unbreakable spiritual bond unites us, the dead intercede for us, and we pray for their eternal souls, we want them to be at peace and they want us to live life to the full.
So, we remember with gratitude, we pray with conviction and we receive in grace that peace in our hearts that allows us to hope and pray that one day we shall be together again.