tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post3597666146437004819..comments2024-03-17T22:48:00.427+08:00Comments on Reflections and Ruminations: What the Church needs to cope with when loved ones die.Fr Luke Fonghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03079016104331055895noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-3498631829436172012015-03-01T15:14:20.142+08:002015-03-01T15:14:20.142+08:00Dear Fr Luke,
I am not convince, that as soon as ...Dear Fr Luke,<br /><br />I am not convince, that as soon as one pass on, the deceased is free from suffering and is already in heaven with the Lord. <br /><br />I believe, that we need to pray constantly, for both the living and the dead. Without exception, they need prayer as much as you and I do too. Prayer is for our souls as food is for our physical body.<br /><br />But for sin-unknown to many, in whatever we do in this life, we need to face the consequences, which is often hidden from the eyes and knowledge of man.<br /><br />{Ezekiel 33:11} " Tell them, that as surely as I, the Sovereign Lord, am the Living God. I do not enjoy seeing sinners die. I would rather see them stop sinning and live. Stop the evil you are doing.<br /><br />{Ez 18:24} But if the upright man renounces his integrity, commits sin, copies the wicked man and practices every kind of filth, is he to live?<br /><br />{Ez 18:25} Listen: is what I do unjust? Is it not what you do that is unjust?<br /><br />{Ez 18:26} When the upright man renounces his integrity to commit sin and dies because of this, he dies because of the evil that he himself has committed. <br /><br />{Ez 18:27} When the sinner renounces sin to become law-abiding and honest, he deserves to live. He has chosen to renounce all his previous sins; he shall certainly live, he shall not die." <br /><br />{Ez 18:30} "Now I, the Sovereign Lord am telling you that I will judge each of you by what you have done. Turn away from all the evil you are doing, and don't let your sin destroy you."<br /><br />{Matthew 5:26} " I tell you solemnly, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny."<br /><br />Fr.Luke: We are still on our journey and so are they, albeit in a different mode. We must never be too presumptuous about God's mercy and grace. <br /><br />All Glory to Jesus Christ<br />Our Lord & God<br />Forever & Forevermore<br />Amen.<br /><br />Secret.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7853204965986587589.post-34114148999371398722015-02-27T15:08:15.357+08:002015-02-27T15:08:15.357+08:00‘many also choose not to look death in the face,..... ‘many also choose not to look death in the face,............’<br /><br />I can still remember vividly, how deathly quiet our lecture room became when the visiting professor introduced his paper on Philosophy & Man by asking us....... “do you not agree that the only thing we can be sure of is our death?” We were young then, doing our final year at tertiary institution, dreaming dreams, planning plans ......... of course – death was furthest from our minds. But, it was a sobering, a frightening thought.......that lingered, that mattered, the more we think about it. That was one of the defining moments of my life.<br /><br />We know that something is said to have died when it ceases to live, what then is the goal and meaning in life? How are we to handle death......to live in fear and dread of death and so we give up on life itself, even before we start the living? Or do we try to ‘outwit’ death by going the other extreme – living a desperately hectic and busy life, ( bluffing ourselves that’s fullness of life) trying to convince ourselves of our ability to survive through sheer will-power and seeking the elixir of life from science & medicine or even mysticism and magic?<br /><br />Through the years, walking slowly in the faith I chose to be baptized in, and especially in my encounter & practice of Christian Meditation as taught by Fr John Main -- has revealed that the Christian mystery can only be penetrated if I enter into the mystery of death and resurrection, the Paschal Mystery, achieved through the single-pointedness or focus on Jesus Christ, remembering his essential message – ‘no man can be a follower of mine unless he leaves self behind.....the man who would find his life must lose it....’<br />As one grows and matures, one is happily surprised that life affirms itself by recognizing, accepting and consenting to end - to bring about a deeper reality. Such as when one renounces things to give to others, depriving the ego of immediate satisfaction, for the benefit of others. This has to be what some teachers of the faith meant when they talked about “life dies to itself in order to give itself away to others......so that when man physically and mentally declines, having given everything that he had to life, to other men, to his love, to his family, and to the world............he has given himself totally in love. There is nothing left now for him to give.........”<br /> It is his final act of surrender - he gives his death as a gift to life.<br /><br /> John 12:24 ‘......unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it yields much fruit.’<br /><br />God bless you, Fr<br /><br />tessa<br />Tessahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04211998984286520369noreply@blogger.com