Light

It never occurred to me that by nightfall I could be standing in front of my Beloved being judged for my sins…   It never occurred to me until today.

Christ carrying the Cross (Luis de Morales)

The other day I heard the very shocking and terrible news that a young man who I had taught when he was a school boy was brutally and inexplicably killed – he was only twenty-one years old.  In an attack that was most likely mistaken identity, this young man was stabbed to death while on a night out with his girlfriend.

His funeral is today…

He was a good boy.  He loved basketball and – like many boys and girls – was not a huge fan of academic school-work (though he worked hard and completed a university degree).  He worked with his father and had plans for his future.  And he had a nice girlfriend and a good relationship with his parents and his siblings and other family and friends.  And then – one day – he was killed.  And at only twenty-one years old his earthly life came to an end.  It was sudden and abrupt.  He was simply taken right in the middle of things.

Nobody was ready for this.  He was not prepared.  He had a life to live and then it was finished, and he was dead.  And he died within minutes of being attacked.

And all the plans that he had for his life were finished.  And all the hopes that his family had for his future were finished.  And all the things that he had left to do were left unfinished.  The clothes on the end of his bed, the food half eaten in the fridge.  The phone call he forgot to return.  The email that he had drafted…  All of these things were finished.  He did not have a chance to call his mother one last time or argue with his brothers or disagree with his sister.  Instead, in an instant, and completely out of the blue, his earthly life was done.

And why?  We cannot help but ask why the Earthly life of such a beautiful soul was cut short in such a way.  And I have been trying to consider this in another way – through the eyes of faith…

Perhaps we are looking at this terrible thing in the wrong way?  Perhaps instead of considering the shortness of this man’s earthly life, we could instead consider the length of his eternal one.  Perhaps God only required twenty-one short years on earth for this young man to sanctify himself?  Perhaps God only needed this brief snatch of time for this young man to secure eternity?  Perhaps we others who are left behind to mourn needed a reminder of what is waiting for us?  Perhaps we needed this flicker of life to understand how valued is the human life and how quickly it is ended – by things so far beyond our control we could never predict them.

And as I woke up this morning and brushed my teeth and dressed myself and prepared for my day, it never occurred to me that by nightfall I could be standing in front of my Beloved being judged for my sins…   It never occurred to me until today.

And I remember this today as I remember the soul of this young man who died and as I pray for his family.  For some souls are born to enlighten others.  And I can see the light from this man’s soul.  I can clearly see the light…

For with prayer, I stand on Holy Ground where everything is clear. Here. At the Foot of the Cross.