Death and Hope - Part II

My blog last week of Death and Hope has another side, a side that has prompted me into deeper reflection over the years. The setting is the same; my family was present, supporting each other, and mom, as death approached. At one point in the afternoon as mom was drifting back into consciousness, she mentioned "the light." We, brothers and sisters, who have read about near death experiences thought she was referring to the light that is Christ calling her home. We thought she was being drawn to the light, but hesitant to let go of her family. We were trying to encourage her to let go and go with Christ. We would be okay.

The next day, during another brief moment of her consciousness, we tried to call mom back to the "experience of the light." We wanted to reiterate that it was all right to go to the light, that we would be fine. In the few words she could offer, she denied this as her experience. We thought it was just her unwillingness to let go. Now these ten years later, I'm not so sure. What I think now is that my mom might have seen the light that was present in her family there gathered – the light of Christ, to be sure, reflected in the gift of our family together in this special way. We couldn't see what was probably obvious to her . . . that where two or more are gathered in His name, He is there in our midst. I think Christ was present there, not as a light at the end of a tunnel, but as One with us, and for us, if only we had the eyes to see. We all were in the midst of a transcendent experience. The grace that was being offered was not to my mom for she was already full of grace, but to us, her family.