Today is the seventh anniversary of the death of my youngest brother, Ethan, who was killed in a car accident when he was only sixteen years old. I’ve been considering posting shorter reflections every once in a while, in between my regular posts here, and this seemed like the perfect day to start.

If you would, please say a prayer for my family and for Ethan’s friends, as we all remember him and miss him — today, and every day.

I want to share a quote from Saint Francis de Sales:

“Death is hideous. But the life beyond the grave that the mercy of God will give us is very desirable. We must by no means lose confidence. For, though we are sinners, we are still far from being as bad as God is merciful and ready to forgive those who repent, who have a will to amend, and who place their hope in Jesus Christ. Death is no longer ignominious, but glorious, since the Son of God has undergone it. For this reason, the Blessed Virgin and all the saints have considered it an advantage to die, in imitation of the Savior, who allowed himself, of his own free consent, to be nailed to the Cross. For death has become, through Jesus Christ, so sweet and amiable, that the angels would regard themselves happy if they could have the privilege of enduring it.”

Back when I was an atheist, I would have thought this quote was silly, but now I find it incredibly beautiful. I dealt with my brother’s death for more than five years before I returned to the Church, and in that time I grew a great deal, but the growth I attained on my own was nothing compared to how I’ve been transformed since cultivating my faith. While I still have the pain of missing my brother, it’s now accompanied by a profound sense of peace, because of the hope I have of being reunited with him in eternity. Not a desperate hope, not the sort of ‘wishful thinking’ that non-believers typically assume it is, but a true, honest, legitimate hope. One that’s not built on blind faith, but on the overwhelming evidence that Jesus Christ truly was God Incarnate, and that by his death and Resurrection, he saved us from the grave — a gift of pure, selfless love. I hope that if you’ve lost someone you love, you can find comfort in this, and that you can rest in the hope that you will see them again one day.

“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
“O death, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?”

_{1 Corinthians 15:55}