| MAY 1, 2023 -- For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been thus destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself. Job 19
Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. 1 Corinthians 15
Death, be not proud, though some have called thee Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so; For those whom thou think’st thou dost overthrow Die not, poor Death, nor yet canst thou kill me. From rest and sleep, which but thy pictures be, Much pleasure; then from thee much more must flow, And soonest our best men with thee do go, Rest of their bones, and soul’s delivery
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One short sleep past, we wake eternally, And death shall be no more; Death, thou shalt die. [Death be not Proud, by John Donne]
Death is inevitable for all of us, yet for those of faith, whether we are Christian, Jewish, or Muslim, there will be a resurrection after death, where we will encounter God directly, and experience eternal life thereafter. The details of how this will happen are shrouded in mystery. But the promise that this shall happen should be a comfort to all of us.
Many of you know that my younger son, Edward, died in late March of this year. My strong faith in God’s promise of life after death has sustained me in this loss. The words spoken during the Grange ceremony for draping the Charter are especially appropriate: “Heavy indeed are the sorrows that so often descend upon us during this earthly pilgrimage; yet proving the trial of our Faith, in the certainty of the resurrection and the immortality of the soul.
To those who look forward to a reunion in another and a brighter world, where there will never more be separations nor pain, the experience of death is shorn of its sting, and life’s eventide becomes more delightful than the morning.”
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