Fr Marco Lazzaron
he solemn light, lit on 1st November (All Saints), becomes today an intimate light, illuminating the memory of all our deceased brothers and sisters. Yesterday was a solemn day; today is an intimate one, a day to bring back into our hearts and prayers those who accompany us with their own prayer. As a priest, I am often in contact with death, called to celebrate it always illuminated by the gentle flame of the Paschal candle of the Risen One. A few points we should all consider:
– “Sister Death”: Our friends the dogs, the cats, all living beings in the universe are born, grow, and die—perhaps without drama or awareness. Perhaps only humanity has been given the perception and consciousness of death. Human beings know that their days are numbered, that they cannot dwell on this earth forever. “Sister Death,” St. Francis reminds us—death is part of us: just as shadow is necessary to a drawing, to give it depth and shape, so too the shadow of death is necessary to outline the meaning of life and its beauty. Sister, not enemy; sister, not vengeance; sister, part of us.
– “Spiritual testament”: “Father,” I was told, “at funerals everyone suddenly becomes good, even if they weren’t in life!” Sometimes this question comes to me almost as a challenge. I answer: “Yes—we need to remember that only good remains”. Everything else is forgotten in an instant: the quirks of character, the human struggles, the contradictions, the tensions—they all dissolve like fog at noon.
– “Communion with them”: in the film Belfast, the director portrays his childhood and captures his final exchange with his grandfather on his hospital bed: “Where are you going, Grandpa?”, “I’m not going anywhere you can’t find me.” Our loved ones do not go somewhere we cannot find them: if we fall silent, if we truly listen, they are there with us. If we are afraid, they whisper to us to stand back up. They are our conscience, our strength, our reconciliation. They do not leave our lives—they enter them even more deeply.
– “Life, eternal life”: something of death has been within me since I came into the world: with each day, we grow older. Yet something of eternal life has also been within me since birth: my decisions, all the values and the choices I make—all carry with them something eternal, a taste of eternal.
Dear sons and daughters, dear brothers and sisters, dear parents, grandparents, uncles, friends, and beloved departed: today you are with me, you are in the communion of saints—you are in the Risen Christ, forever!
Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace. Amen.