My Wedding Day
Death is definitive and confronting, but not the last word. In fact, death is a gateway to eternal, resurrected life:
On this mountain, the Lord will remove the mourning veil covering all peoples, and the shroud enwrapping all nations, he will destroy death forever.
That day, it will be said: See, this is our God in whom we hoped for salvation. The Lord is the one in whom we hoped (Isaiah 25).
Through our death, we are invited to the greatest wedding of all – our marriage with Christ, the true Bridegroom.
A true story helps.
A severely disabled man lived in a L’Arche Community. He began to say to his carers that his wedding day was approaching:
In six months my wedding day will be.
In five months, four months, three months, two months, my wedding day will be.
He continued to count down the days:
In 30 days my wedding day will be.
In 20 days, in 10 days, my wedding day will be.
The night before his wedding day, he continued to claim, ‘tomorrow is my wedding day.’
And it was:
He died.
He understood, better than anyone, the true meaning of his death.
Amen.