An Observation about Death

Danny Gmeiner, LMSC

Being that All Saint’s and All Soul’s days have just passed, I offer this … an observation about death.

This seems like an odd subject, but it has been following me around for awhile. I think about death occasionally. Usually in terms of others deaths, like my mother and father. There have been aunts and uncles on my wife's side of the family that have died. In the past, I have always thought of death as a lonely event. Yes, many have died with their loved ones with them, but it still felt/feels lonely. I didn’t connect the death to life.

I read the daily readings sent out by our Lay Superior which contains a lot of histories about those who have lived and died as part of this great community/family we call the Chevalier Family. I began to notice that as I would read about the death of one of the family members, it didn’t feel so lonely. In fact, it made me feel more like I belonged than did anything else I had experienced. I don’t think I really understand this yet, but this living and dying within a community whose life is to continually bring the love of the Sacred Heart to the world makes me feel like this love transcends the dying and in that there is no real loss. There is a change, but not like I experienced with my mother and father. That loss was abrupt and seemingly empty and without a transcendence that has depth and meaning beyond that physical death of the body.

Does love truly connect us to the eternal? I feel and think of my parents everyday. I see them in me and my brother. I see them in my children and grandchildren. This “soothes” the loss of my parents, but the sense of emptiness and loneliness that to me surrounds death is still there. Yes, my connection to the Chevalier Family has helped me to grow, and I do believe that death is changing, for me, from the empty and lonely to the celebration of love. My thoughts are still too chaotic for me to claim that, now I get it! 

In reading one of the pages form the Daily Readings this partial sentence has gotten my attention, “He who laboured so untiringly for the glory of the Heart of Jesus and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart … “. This thought of continually working for this glory makes me feel very connected to our Father Founder. Someone who died over a hundred years ago? How so? Knowing about the Sacred Heart and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart brings comfort. Again I ask, how so? The only thing I can say at this time is love. These 2 images that represent love in its purest form comfort me. I believe that this love has obviously transcended time because I am talking about the same thing(s) that the Disciples talked about 2000+ years ago! It is like time is not relevant when we speak of love. Distance is not relevant when we speak of love. The only thing that is important is the people that we think about and relate to when we speak of love.  So as time goes on, there is less and less emptiness because there are more and more people to   think about and to share love with. Whether they are physically with us or only in spirit, we have them   to talk to and to share this universal love, this love of the Sacred Heart.--Danny Gmeiner, LMSC