Tears Of Sorrow, Tears Of Joy

I’ve been in a Bible study with three faith-filled women for about 20 years. During that time, we have studied the Word of God together, and we have shared many important events including the births and the deaths and the marriages of our loved ones.

We have laughed the best laughs together and shared our deepest concerns.

Two of the husbands died during those 20 years, and when the third one was diagnosed with cancer we were all fearful.

He fought the good fight, but recently we realized that he wasn’t going to win this earthly battle.

A few weeks ago, he was placed in hospice care, and one lovely spring morning, we decided to visit him. As we gathered in his room, Donna, our spiritual director, read comforting words from the Bible, and then we gently sang “Holy, Holy, Holy,” with him and to him.

It was a sad moment. He knew it, and we knew it.

A few days later I attended his funeral. We sang “On Eagle’s Wings,” and we were comforted by the words of the 23rd Psalm. Our hearts were wrenched by the sight of his widow — our friend — being helped down the aisle by her daughter as she clutched a snow white prayer blanket.

Lunch was pretty subdued that day as thoughts about the morning and song lyrics swirled around in my head.

A couple of hours later, I walked into church to celebrate a baptism with my parish family. We clustered together like the early Christians, happy to be together and eager to participate in the baptism of one of our youngest and most precious members.

The priest talked about joy as he bent down to talk to the young child, who was just months past being a toddler. We all beamed as he asked her name, as he covered her with holy water, and as her parents struggled to dress her in her new, snow white garment. And we smiled huge smiles as we stood together for a photo in front of the altar after Mass.

Death into life. Life into death. What a day that was. In the life cycle of a Christian, tears of sorrow can become tears of joy in just a few hours.

What would we do without our sacred rituals? Where would we go with our sadness? With our joy? It’s so strengthening to gather together as a faith community during happy times, and sad ones too.

We believe that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us. As Catholics, we believe that Christ is found in the sacraments.

James 4:8 encourages us to “draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” Always.