Do Not Weep My siblings and I tried to prepare spiritually and emotionally our whole lives for the death of our parents. That is the way it should be. No parents can prepare to bury their child. This isn’t the way it should be. While there is always grief at the death of a parent, there is no small measure of comfort in reminiscing about a life well spent, a long life that has influenced many and achieved much good. When a child dies, however -even an adult child – we have a sense that the life the parents have brought into this world has been cheated by the brevity of time on earth. The younger generation just doesn’t die first. That’s not the way things are supposed to be! In our Gospel today, a funeral procession is taking place. A son has died. The dead man was the widow’s only son. Her life was effectively over. With the death of her son, she lost her future as well as her present. Jesus, out of pity, raised her son back to life again. By raising her son, Jesus restored her present possibilities and revealed God’s promise concerning our future: death is not the end, but the beginning of the fullness of life God intends for us. Our journey is a constant opening of ourselves to new life that comes from God. Every day Jesus encounters us on the way and has pity on us. Every day Jesus says to us, “Arise!” when we think we are going to break from too much tension, are discouraged with always playing catch-up, our doubting our ability to make a difference in our world. What is our response to his ever present gift of life?