The Tree

 

THE TREE

This morning, I made my usual ministry call at St. Joseph's Nursing Home, Catonsville, Maryland. 

After Mass and my visits to room-bound residents, and as I departed the home and I made my way to my car, once again I was awestruck by the magnificence and beauty of the very huge, ancient, and winter-barren tree in front of the building.  Today for some reason, the tree's form and stature spoke loudly to my thoughts!

Imagine how much life that seemingly “dead” tree has in fact already sustained, and will no doubt continue to generate! 

As I gazed upward into the majestic stretches of the tree's many branches, my thoughts took me to an encounter I had with one of the residents just a short while earlier. 

As I made the rounds accompanied by the ever faithful Sister Theresa, we visited and prayed with a beautiful resident named Shirley, a very elderly woman and the mother of a beloved son named +Barry who passed-away just yesterday after a long struggle with a difficult illness.  Today, Shirley is stricken with tremendous grief, and although she and her family are Jewish and Sister and I Christians, we held hands and prayed together for +Barry's soul and for his family and friends who are filled with sorrow. It was a powerful moment, and I believe Shirley found at least some consolation through our prayers, and by the conversation we had during which she shared her heartache and pain.  

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the fragility of human life. In very recent times, I too have experienced pain, grief, and loss caused by the deaths of family and friends I have greatly loved.  From so many perspectives, my encounter with Shirley this morning certainly amplified my thoughts about these realities! 

I'm thinking . . . 

Some who've gone before us had lives cut way too short, others thankfully had quite long lives filled with many blessings! 

Nonetheless, our grief and heartache at the deaths of our loved ones, no matter the amount of years they spent on this earth, or whatever faith perspectives they had, or we might have, likely causes contemplation about the brevity of our own mortal lives (this at least as we consider hoped for “eternal realities”).

The stark truth is that no one can escape death, and the eventual end to our present lives. And this reality almost always causes sorrow, grief and heartache for those left behind.

Truth also is we have only 'today.'  Let's be grateful for every breath we take, and in this moment and every day, let's cherish our family members, friends, and loved-ones with whom we have been, and are now blessed to share the journey.  

It is a fact that the tree, although seemingly dead, actually is promised resurrection and new life!  Our faith in a loving, eternal God somehow points in that same direction!  For the tree, and for now, life has simply changed, not ended.  Its yearning for springtime is clearly evident and filled with joyful hope as its branches reach to the skies! 

My friends, may that fervent desire be ours as well! 

– Please pray for the consolation and peace of Shirley, and for the peaceful repose of her very beloved son +Barry.  And of course, may we never forget, and always cherish, the memories we hold within our hearts of our own family members, friends and loved ones who have passed from this life to the next! 

Praise God!