Tuesday, December 5th:
Hope… This is the first week in Advent and we have lighted the first candle, the candle of Hope. Hope focuses not on what is seen, but what lasts and what comes last. What lasts and comes last can only be known through faith. As we consider Christmas birth, the incarnation of Jesus Christ, place your hope, through faith, that God is still uttering forth new births every day, everywhere, and that you can be a part of impregnating creation with a good word and action of new life through the hope know through the love of God in Jesus Christ, even if it means letting someone die to this world and be born anew into the next:
Giving Permission to Die
One of the greatest gifts we can offer our family and friends is helping them to die well. Sometimes they are ready to go to God but we have a hard time letting them go. But there is a moment in which we need to give those we love the permission to return to God, from whom they came. We have to sit quietly with them and say: “Do not be afraid … I love you, God loves you … it’s time for you to go in peace. … I won’t cling to you any longer … I set you free to go home … go gently, go with my love.” Saying this from our heart is a true gift. It is the greatest gift love can give.
When Jesus died he said: “Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit” (Luke 23:46). It is good to repeat these words often with our dying friends. With these words on their lips or in their hearts, they can make the passage as Jesus did.
Henri Nouwen
For further reflection…
“See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” – Hebrews 12: 15 (NIV)