Where is the Final Blessing in the Final Days of Our Lives?

Where is the final blessing that we desire in the final days of our life?

Our lives are filled with so many obstacles that we find the need to be reconciled with God daily.  The problem exists with roadblocks each time sin attracts our very thinking.  Of course, our understanding of forgiveness becomes overbearing as the more we learn of God’s Mercy the more we punish ourselves thinking the worst of our weaknesses and God’s turning a blind eye towards them.  

How can a God who called prophets, kings, and priests, throughout history, to pronounce his mercy in lieu of judgement that led to the ultimate forgiveness through one like us?  A man who shared  temptations like us, and encountered weaknesses of life that only grace could circumvent.  Can you count the parables Jesus spoke of that brought His Father’s love through forgiveness for the most heinous deeds we could commit?

All sin is forgivable except the sin against the Holy Spirit.  It is obvious that those who believe God can neither forgive us or his mercy is unattainable are in the throes of serious sin.  Jesus attempted to disprove those thoughts which were proven on the Cross at Calvary when he said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they do.”  

The day our body is brought before the priest, and a white Pall is placed over the coffin, the beginning of our final day on earth is the blessing towards the Resurrection we’ve learned about and continues our final journey.  The Pall reminds us of our baptismal vesture and white indicates our belief in the Resurrection.  

Ordinary parts of the Funeral Mass are designed to fit the ceremony of death/resurrection and the farewell of the deceased.  All readings, music, and exhortation give the mourners a final remembrance of and a blessing to the one being laid to rest.  We may attend many funeral ceremonies sharing these sacred parts and hopefully will also have mourners attending one for each of us.  

Once the deceased is laid in the ground the period of mourning may go on for a greater length of time.  The grieving may last by those who are left according to the individuals’ need to remember. 

A final blessing occurs as a collective period of holiness encompasses the deceased and the mourners as long as they remain in remembrance.  We know since our son has been gone for over a year.  There are many who remember for years without solace.  But we are all connected by a reality that death is certain and our ultimate future remains with God’s blessings.

Ralph B. Hathaway, Spring 2021