麻豆约拍

Good morning. A fortnight ago I took part in the funeral service of a friend who 聽for fourteen years had 聽had Alzheimer鈥檚 Disease, I was very conscious of different emotions that day- sadness, not simply because she鈥檇 聽died but because it was at the end of a long and devastating illness which robbed her of so much. There was admiration for the way in which those closest to her coped with a situation nearly impossible to describe<?xml:namespace prefix = "o" ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

There was a feeling of relief- she鈥檇 been released from the long darkness and a feeling of loss for while there was a sense she鈥檇 been lost to us some time ago there is a still a finality about death. But there was also have a sense of thankfulness, for my friend could not be defined simply by her illness. So we remembered the person she was-generous, kind devoted as a wife and mother

But there was, I think, another emotion- a sense of perplexity, confusion and the question why should something terrible like this have happened and happened to her?

.For life can and does take on terrifying changes- changes which perplex and traumatise. Changes which cry out for some kind of explanation but none comes. And when I am perplexed because of experiences like that, I have found that about the only thing I can hold on to is some sense that God understands and somehow shares the pain and the grief and the loss and the suffering and the uncertainties.

Because the God who reveals Himself in Jesus Christ is one who walks alongside us, knows and shares our feelings, our sadness鈥檚 and our difficulties. 聽聽A God from whose love, in the words of St Paul 鈥�Nothing, nothing in all creation can separate us鈥� .

Lord assure, we pray, those whose lives have been upset by inexplicable events, of your love, Amen, .