I listened to them in the preface of the Requiem Mass that day, and as we entered the cemetery, read them on a stone inscription at the entrance.  They imprinted themselves on my mind and they challenged me and comforted me.

I recall these words as we begin the month of November. Hallowe'en (Holy evening), All Saints and All Souls Days are like gateways to memory.  I remember again the mix of feelings associated with bereavement - loss and confusion, anger and bewilderment, peace and acceptance.  I grapple again with grief and with the mystery of life and death.

‘Life is changed, not Ended’:  In the years since my mother’s death and in the experience of other loss and bereavements I have reflected often on these words.  I have become much more in tune with the pattern of creation, seeing how death-to-life is reflected in the progression of the seasons and in the whole of creation.  Autumn, Winter, Spring, Summer – each irreplaceable, each one necessary.  In the middle of a cold, hard winter it is almost impossible to imagine the warmth of a beautiful summer’s day!

For me, Christ holds the key to understanding death.  His greatest moments of loss as he gave his life on the cross were, simultaneously, the bursting forth of resurrection. Like a stream which has been damned up, new life gushed forth for the world.

In my Christ-ian life I take on the pattern of Christ’s life; my losses, big and small, are linked in a mysterious way with his death.  In sharing his death I also share his resurrection and can be a channel of new life for others. The mystery of life and death is not lessened - especially of tragic death - but somewhere in the barrenness I begin to sense some meaning.

Sr Veronica Mc Cabe, OP

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