Sudden Death

Today, I offered my condolences for a brother who has passed away suddenly. "Not long ago, they were with me, and today they have departed ". You know that in our Church, we pray for the Lord to deliver us from "sudden death". One of the deceased brother's siblings told me that his brother's death has brought him relief and left them broken. I listened attentively to him. What is known is well-known! Sudden death breaks every human being, both the deceased and his loved ones. Every human being needs to prepare to meet the Lord. Even the sanctified person, who lives as if he were now setting out to meet the Lord, is unaware of his fate. There remains the opposite of the sudden death, which is that the Lord may grant us to be “buried in a good old age” (Genesis 15:15). I understand the world's current apprehension of the hardships of old age. None of us are granted knowledge of our end. Yet, we are all given to anticipate a gift in our old age, to hear the Lord saying to us: " I will take you up and save you" (Isaiah 46:4). Blessed is he whom the Lord gives to anticipate his final moments by saying to Him: “Remember me when You come into Your kingdom” (Luke 23:42)!