Spiritual Notes

Sr. Marguerite Kelly

Those whom we have Loved and Lost

We have a little saying that when you get a lemon, you make lemonade. This means generally that when something sour or displeasing comes our way, we just try to make something good out of it. Now everybody who knows anything about making lemonade knows that you put in the lemon rind after you squeeze out all the juice, just for more flavor.

There are so many distasteful events which come into our lives and we try to make sense out of it all. We get advice, look for “silver linings”, and for the most part, not everything works out perfectly - there is always the rind, always the memory, and the lingeringness of the lemon.

This week begins for us with the celebration of those whom we have loved and lost. They have passed through our lives and then past on. We can pray with the juice and enjoy the flavor of the blessings they have been and are to us. We pray as well with the rind and pain of not having them around any more. They are in the “hand of God” we say, but we long to have them close at hand, hand in hand with us. No, we do not always make lemonade out of lemons, at least not immediately, nor easily. We might have to pray with just the rinds in our hands this year.

There are some comforting lines in today’s first reading, we can pray with them. There are other lines which speak of those who are faithful and elect will be in God’s care. Are these the ones who suffered their illnesses well, but those who lost heart, lost God’s mercy? The souls of the “just” are in the hand of God. My brother was a “just” man, in our eyes, but this reading can make us question whether God knew him in the same way.

The Gospel for this celebration is the exact same Gospel we read yesterday for the Feast of all Saints, amazing. These seven invitations to holiness are the orientational program for those who will follow Jesus through this life into the next. It is a good check-list for our examining the lives of those whom we grieve, even now, even for years. How did he/she live a spirit of sharing, receiving, spreading life around? Were they aware of their gifts and not keep them to themselves?

I judge that the kingdom of God is theirs as Jesus has said.

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