Joy and Sadness of Holy Week

One of the writers in the Catholic Times offers a meditation on the new life Jesus gives us.

Tim

As I’ve lived my life, I’ve found that there are now more people who have gone to heaven than those with whom I’ve formed new bonds. It seems that many of the people I loved and respected are now in heaven. In fact, since death is a reality we all face at this very moment, regardless of age, I look to Father Gerhard Loepf’s *Understanding Death, Resurrection, and Eternal Life* for some insight.

We often think of Jesus’ death as the final act of a transcendent hero. However, Father Röpke points out that Jesus’ death was one of utter “helplessness.” He was neither a superhero who made a dramatic escape from the cross nor a magician who could erase suffering in an instant. Like us—no, even more poignantly than us—He stood face to face with death. In that moment of utter helplessness, Jesus entrusted Himself completely to the Father. Through this very “surrender,” He personally demonstrated that death is an act of the deepest trust, a leap into the hands of God.

Death feels like vanishing forever into pitch-black darkness. But this book states unequivocally: The true name of death is “encounter.” The moment we close our eyes, we do not face darkness, but the face of the One who formed and loved us. Like the moment we finally embrace someone we have longed for, death is the most intense encounter where every fragment of life comes together and our true self is fully revealed. Therefore, death is not a source of fear, but perhaps the greatest source of anticipation.

Of course, we cannot simply be filled with excitement. For in that moment, we stand before the mirror that is God. A mirror before which nothing can be hidden. The mistakes I have made, my selfishness, and the moments I failed to love are laid bare. This is what “judgment” truly is. Yet it is not a courtroom drama where a judge bangs down the gavel. It is the feeling of shame we experience in the face of overwhelming love—that, in itself, is judgment. “Why couldn’t I have loved more?” This book tells us that this agonizing regret is itself the “purifying fire.” It is not a punishment but a healing. It is the process of shaping us into people of complete love.

Will we, having been resurrected, float around like ghosts? No. This book tells us that we are resurrected along with our “physical bodies.” This means that all the joys and sorrows I experienced in life, the people I loved, and the stories I built through hard work—all of it enters into God. The love and devotion we shared in this world, even the smallest efforts that went unnoticed by anyone, do not disappear. They all become the building blocks of resurrection and shine eternally.

There is another fascinating point. In God’s time, there are no clock hands as we know them. At the moment we take our last breath, we step out of the framework of time and enter the “eternal present.” That moment is the end, the Second Coming, and the Resurrection. We do not wait tediously in a cold grave for our turn; rather, the moment we die, we enter God’s Eternal Time.