Homily: August 8, 2022 (Monday) Memorial of Saint Dominic, Priest

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 “And they were overwhelmed with grief.”

Why were they overwhelmed with grief? Did they feel grief for Jesus because He was going to suffer and be killed? Or did they feel grief for themselves because they will be losing their master?

I think I was in 3rd grade when one of our cats died. We had many cats in our cardamom dryer room, to keep the mice away. One day we found one cat died. My younger siblings and I decided to give it a proper burial. We dug a pit in our farm, buried it and decorated the tomb with flowers. We even prayed the Divine office for the dead. We grieved that day. But since we had many cats, we got over it soon.

The death of someone we love, or someone we respect, or someone great, makes us grieve deep. We realise the loss to us or to this world, which cannot be easily replaced, so we grieve. The loss for some people can be so devastating that they never get back to normal living again.

When my parents died, I grieved deeply. My mommy did not live to see me become a priest. My papa died within a week of discovering his illness, I didn’t have much time to be with him in his dying. My grandparents' deaths made me really sad too because I grew up, with them living in the same house. Home became very different without them.

When was the last time you grieved? A retired priest told me that two things are certain in life: everyone will get older and everyone will die.

But as believers of the resurrection, how should we grieve?

The disciples of Jesus grieved when He told them about his dying. But they missed the most important part of what He said, that ‘he will be raised on the third day’.

Yes, death makes us grieve because of the separation on earth, but at the same time we rejoice because the separation from God is ended, and resurrection will follow. There is no resurrection without death.

As people of love, we grieve for losing our loved ones, but as people of faith, we rejoice for their union with God. And as people of hope, we look forward to our re-union in heaven when our time here ends as well. Amen. 


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