If I Could Give You One Gift

I entered the funeral home this afternoon and was struck by the stark emptiness of it all. The baby’s tiny casket sat in the front of a large empty room surrounded by a few bouquets of flowers. Her parents stood to the side. There were a few rows of wooden chairs lined up as if for a service, although the service never happened. There was no cozy furniture or soothing paintings on the walls like other funeral parlors I’ve visited. The whole thing was just empty and cold. My husband and I walked up to the father of the child, a man we’d never met, and he embraced us each and thanked us for coming. Next, we approached our niece. As I held her in my arms for a moment and expressed, to the best of my ability, the sorrow I felt for her in the loss of her child, my heart tore and my tears flowed uncontrollably. I wanted desperately to tell her that things would be okay, that she would get through this. But all I could do is cry. After pulling myself away from my dear niece, I walked over to the little casket. The cover was closed and there were no pictures of their precious child. It was hard to imagine that in this box laid the body of a sweet baby girl who only a month ago kicked wildly in her mother’s womb, a happy, healthy child. How could this be? I approached the casket and went to kneel and offer my prayers for her eternal soul, but there was no kneeler. That’s when it struck me that this family was suffering their loss alone. Peace is something that comes to us as a gift. It is given to us by our divine Lover who knows that without His peace, we simply would not be able to cope with the trials of life. Even in the darkest hours of my life, I have always felt the peace of knowing that God was with me. Any trial I have ever had to endure has always been bearable by reflecting on the cross and knowing that no pain I could ever suffer would take away the love God has for me. In fact, through my sufferings, I am brought closer to Christ and His blessed mother who suffered more than any mother could ever imagine. I wish desperately that my niece could know the love of our Lady and unite her broken heart to the mother of the world who knows every bit of her pain. Unfortunately, my dear niece does not know the peace that comes with the gift of our Catholic Faith. She was never taught the faith of her grandmother, because her own mother and father have never shared that faith with their children. How will she ever be able to cope with the loss of her child; how will she make sense of this tragedy? If I could give you one gift, my dear niece, I would give you the gift of faith. For it is only through faith that we are able to make sense of our suffering. Only through faith can we feel the peace of God in the midst of our desperation.