Saturday, July 16, 2011
Children in heaven
A very sad funeral on a very sad day. Not really grieving, but feeling a kind of sympathy pain with people I care about. But it makes me think that the pain of grief and sadness and loss is still sweeter than the numbness of indifference.
You spend years explaining your pro-life beliefs to your children. You arm them with facts and you build (hopefully) a foundation that will withstand the inevitable onslaught of criticism and vitriol that will come their way. You watch them internalize those beliefs and you feel hopeful but always worried.
And then comes a funeral mass and burial for a miscarried child. The reality of the life and dignity of the unborn has hit them like a hammer blow and suddenly this miraculous child that I've never met has provided a kind of cement to the foundation that my words never could.
A little girl who is already bathed in God's glory has been a powerful witness of His love to my children.
You spend years explaining your pro-life beliefs to your children. You arm them with facts and you build (hopefully) a foundation that will withstand the inevitable onslaught of criticism and vitriol that will come their way. You watch them internalize those beliefs and you feel hopeful but always worried.
And then comes a funeral mass and burial for a miscarried child. The reality of the life and dignity of the unborn has hit them like a hammer blow and suddenly this miraculous child that I've never met has provided a kind of cement to the foundation that my words never could.
A little girl who is already bathed in God's glory has been a powerful witness of His love to my children.
