Issue 33.12
Several years ago there was a popular TV series called “Touched by an Angel.” The program’s main theme was to help families facing the event of a loved one dying and provide spiritual and moral support during this difficult time. Its star, Della Reese, as Tess the lead angel, and two other angels worked as a team.
Each angel had a specific role in supporting the family. Tess was the angel of reality who helped the family come to terms with the reality of death and taught them that there was life beyond the physical and a “God” who loved them. Monica was the angel of loving kindness who assisted people through the emotional pain that comes when a loved one dies and helped them understand this separation is not permanent but only temporary. Finally Andrew, the angel of death, took the departed person by the hand to lead them across the threshold of death to a New Life with God.
Our Western culture shuns the reality of death and does its best not to deal with it at all. However, death is as much a part of life as birth. It is just the other end of the continuum of the phenomenon we call Life. Death is the doorway to new life. Just like birth which brings us into the physical experience of life here on earth, so through death we enter into a new consciousness of the spiritual side of life.
The belief regarding death determines how we handle the loss of a loved one. Do we see it as a beginning or as an end? Our belief about death assists us in processing grief or it can cause us to prolong it. In truth, death creates a new beginning for us as well as for the dying person.
Perhaps these words of poetry from the perspective of a dying person, may give comfort to those who are grieving the loss of a loved one. It is safe to say our deceased loved one wants us to be happy and continue to enjoy life. They may no longer be with us physically but they are always with us in spirit and love.
I’ve found a new place where I can be free
I’ve found a whole new beginning just made for me
I know only peace and I never feel pain;
Days are full of sunshine and never the rain.
So don’t mourn me for long, nor forever cry
Whenever your sorrow bears down on your heart,
Think not of my ending, but of my new start
For on earth there’s no joy that I’d ever see
Compared to the joy of God smiling at me.
Anonymous
Rev. Luigi Persichetti is the chaplain for Southern Utah Home Care and Hospice and a retired Unity minister from Unity Center of Positive Living in St. George.