Death and dying in Lent, a reflection

          It is a central tenet of Christianity that Jesus is both fully divine and fully human. One of the very early Councils of the church hammered out this central belief that we profess in the Apostles Creed.  Some people tend to stress the Divinity of Jesus over his humanity when in fact he was both. I find it particularly comforting to note all the things I know and feel were so familiar to our Lord because he walked dusty roads with dirty feet as thinking, feeling human.

         Whether it is anger, sexuality, love or the need for friends and family, Jesus experienced it all. In Lent Jesus ran the gamut. One situation we may not have thought about is Jesus having the absolute realization and need to say goodbye to his loved ones in a purely human way when he realized where his journey to Jerusalem would lead. He had to say goodbye to his friends who he'd be leaving in the human way that we know only too well ourselves.  Jesus had to steel himself to say goodbye to his Mom. It may sound odd but wouldn't his mother-son bond be just strong as any of ours? When I preside at a wake I have tried to evoke this emotion so people will realize that their God too is intimately aware of their feelings of loss and separation.

          This past week I learned an old friend had lost her husband to a protracted battle with cancer. No sooner had this news begun to settle in when I found out my friend herself had passed days after her husband. Lent seems like a time for passing. It was Lent when my own father passed and my Lenten journey was marked by the loss, feelings of separation and a loop of memories that had me on the verge of tears at any given moment. There was also the time our beloved priest friend Father Donald was transferred in Lent. Feelings of loss and unfairness abounded. Of course it was not Christ suffering in the cross but we sure caught a soulful glimpse of having to say goodbye.
        Another point in our humanness is dealing with death. I think we dissociate the death of our own loved ones with any comparison or knowledge that Jesus went through it too, knows how it feels and ached as we ache.  But Jesud embraced it, 'manned up' so to speak. I might simply say embrace our humanity.  It is the Lrnten thing to do.