Life After Death (1)

NO SEPARATION

The bad news about death is that we become separated from those whom we love.

However, the good news about death is that nothing can separate us from the love of God.

As St Paul reminds the early Christians in Rome who were living under the threat of persecution, "I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God." Romans 8.38-39.

These are not just glib pious words of a preacher, but rather words spoken out of the fiery furnace of personal experience of suffering in this world.

Elsewhere he reminds his readers, "Five times I have received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I have been beaten with rods. Once I received a stoning. Three times I was shipwrecked. For a night and a day I was at sea, on frequent journeys in dangers from rivers, danger from bandits, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers and sisters, in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, hungry and thirsty, often without food, cold and naked". 2 Corinthians 11.24-27.

That is a pretty exhausting list of personal sufferings which could easily shatter a person's faith in God. Yet despite all this, his faith in the loving purposes of God remains steadfast.

Hence he is able to say that nothing "will be able to separate us from the love of God".

Of course we are saddened that we are separated by death from those we love. But what is far more important, in terms of eternity, is that those who have died are not separated from God.

It is this theological truth that transforms our sadness into joy; our fear into hope and our bewilderment into confidence on the earthly death of a loved one.