Suffering and Death to Joy and Life

There are many things that cause us deep sorrow and terrible sufferings, and if not us, we certainly witness it in others or aware of it as we read the newspapers, listen to the news on radio or watch the evening news on the television as the entire world experience the spread of Covid 19.

There are far too many people who shed tears in such circumstances. Certainly the tears are expressions of our anguish about the death of someone we love or about circumstances that seem horrible and as such tears are appropriate.

Tears that are not appropriate are the ones that arise from hopelessness, or feelings that all is now lost, that nothing will ever matter to us again. Without faith, these tears are all too common. Broken hearts are going to cry, but these tears can be turned into tears of joy – if we let faith seep into our hearts.

Initially, the news of the death of someone we love can leave us feeling that life has been sucked out of us. There can be an emptiness that cannot be described in any human language.

We may feel that nothing will ever matter to us again. But Easter reminds us that these feelings, while very human, can give way to something else.

God lives, God reigns. God cares. God has not left us abandoned and alone. God stands with us. God knows too, that for those who love, there is something more than what we first feel and see.

We come back to Easter year after year, but eventually, we are called to understand it. It will never be an intellectual understanding for faith in the Resurrection is an experience in the heart. Like the yeast described by Paul (1 C0r 5:6-8), a little bit of faith, can spread throughout our entire being, so that tears of sadness can become tears of joy.

So, keep the faith, there is light after the darkness, day after night, and resurrection (joy) after sadness, suffereing and death. He is Risen, Alleluia!