I'll Remember
It is only after loved ones have left us that we see what was best in them and understand their lives in a new way. Their absence is the source of another mode of presence because it is in the time of absence that presence becomes real and, being condensed, reaches its true reality. ~Jean-Francois Baudoz, Breaks, Chapter 1, With Christ: the Gospel under the guidance of Saint Benedict. (Minnesota, USA: Liturgical Press, Saint John's Abbey), pp. 2-3.~ We have lost several lives in the mission areas where I was assigned ~ in school, at the hospital, in our neighborhood ~ most of them through terminal illnesses, some by accidents, still others because they have reached old age. And yet, in whatever age we might have lost them, since we cannot predict the time and hour when they will depart, we always assert that " life is ( very ) short." I was struck by the Sunday homily a week ago which spoke mainly of "remembering" ~ commemorating our lost love