Passings

Scrolling through the channels yesterday, my attention was drawn to an arresting tableau in a beautiful building.  I at first thought it a funeral for Shimon Peres, the Israeli prime minister, but I saw it was a church when elaborately clothed clergy circulated on and around the platform. The sight of somber people making their way up the aisle to the altar puzzled me, until I realized it was a communion service.  While most received it, I wondered why some put their arms across their chest, and went on.  I found out later that is what non-Catholics do to receive a blessing instead.

As I viewed the sad assembly, it became apparent  that it was  the funeral of Jose' Fernandez, the acclaimed baseball player who was killed in a boating accident a few days ago. Since I had never seen a Catholic funeral, I was mesmerized and kept watching.

Several speakers came up one by one to give remarks about the departed young man. Emotion was heavy in the room, from the family to the speakers themselves, some of whom wept openly.  One ended his remarks by telling of an incident a couple of years ago when Jose' had been in a pensive mood, dwelling on the disaster of 9/11.  He couldn't get the horrific scene of people jumping out of buildings off his mind, wondering what it was like for them falling to the ground.

The speaker said Jose' hadn't talked about it in a good year and a half, until about six months ago when he said, "I think I know what happened when they faced the end. An angel caught them before they ever hit the earth and took them home to God."  He seemed at peace with the subject then. His friend then said, "That is what I believe happened to Jose'."

Another speaker, through tears, recalled that his star pitcher had come to him awhile back, all happy and smiling, and said, "I bought my mother a house!  I can't believe it!  I'm just a boy from Cuba, and I bought my mother a house in the United States of America!"

When I heard that the athlete was talking about the angels rescuing the 9/11 jumpers, I thought of the old TV show, Quantum Leap. Things would be going along as usual, when the main character was suddenly swept into a new place which he knew nothing about and where he knew no one, with no memory of his former environment!  That is how quickly one can leave this earth.

Thankfully, Someone has "bought" us a house, a home in heaven.  Just as someone may have thought, "No good can come out of Cuba," so someone has said, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?" Jesus started out in people's eyes as an ordinary lad in a small, non-descript village, only to become the Savior of the world. Our heavenly home and our residency has been paid for by His precious blood when He died on the cross.

"For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building  of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." 2 Corinthians 5:1