Daily Gospel Reflection for November 29, 2019

Today's Gospel: Luke 21:29-33 Nothing brings things home like a funeral. Suddenly, you're seeing people you haven't seen for ages, maybe since you were knee high. You're laughing, you're crying, you're realizing that things are going to be different. When the people who are the mainstays in our life die, we're left with an ache and a realization. We're left here, and they...are not. "Heaven and earth will pass away," Jesus says in today's Gospel. I didn't find this comforting until I was experiencing grief so deep and wide that I didn't feel I could cross it. This too shall pass. It sounds like just a trite saying, something my dad would toss my way to make himself feel better about whatever was troubling me. But there's truth in it. This SHALL pass. And where will we be when it's gone? What will we have left? What will be left of us? It's like peeling an onion. You start asking and digging and, next thing you know, you're in tears. The end of the liturgical year reminds us of the last things, and death is one of those. It's part of life. That doesn't make it easy. That isn't just a saying to make anyone feel better. But knowing the truth, facing the truth, holding the truth in your heart...this can impact who you are, how you are, why you are. Let this difficulty be in you. Let it grow in the deep soil of your faith. And let God be the one you lean into as you struggle through it.