# data[].attributes.body
The resurrection is God’s way of revealing to us that nothing that belongs to God will ever go to waste. What belongs to God will never get lost—not even our mortal bodies. The resurrection doesn’t answer any of our curious questions about life after death, such as, How will it be? How will it look? But it does reveal to us that, indeed, love is stronger than death. After that revelation, we must remain silent, leave the whys, wheres, hows, and whens behind, and simply trust.

# data[].attributes.body
And in that large crowd of people mourning and giving thanks while breaking bread together in his memory, I will know as never before that God indeed is love.

# data[].attributes.body
The well-known words of the apostle Paul, “God chose those who by human standards are weak to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27), take on new meaning here because the weak are not only the poor, the disabled, and the mentally ill, but also the dying—and all of us will be dying one day.

# data[].attributes.body
To care for the dying is to help the dying make that hard move from action to passion, from success to fruitfulness, from wondering how much they can still accomplish to making their very lives a gift for others. Caring for the dying means helping the dying discover that, in their increasing weakness, God’s strength becomes visible.

# data[].attributes.body
The true sin of humanity is that men and women created to be brothers and sisters become again and again each other’s enemies, willing to destroy each other’s lives. God sent Jesus to restore the true human order. Jesus is called the Redeemer. He came to redeem us from our sins and to remind us of the truth that we are sons and daughters of God, brothers and sisters of one another.

# data[].attributes.body
In this space, the boundaries between receiving and giving vanish, and true community can start to exist.

# data[].attributes.body
When those who are dying begin to realize that what they are experiencing, though painful, unites them with the worldwide and centuries-old family of humanity, they may be able to let go and gradually let that human family carry them through the gate of death.

# data[].attributes.body
To care for others as they become weaker and closer to death is to allow them to fulfill their deepest vocation, that of becoming ever-more fully what they already are: daughters and sons of God.

# data[].attributes.body
I have always been impressed with the thought that people are only ready to commit themselves to each other when they no longer focus on each other but rather focus together on the larger world beyond themselves. Falling in love makes us look at each other with admiration and tenderness. Committing ourselves to one another in love makes us look together toward those who need our care: the child, the stranger, the poor, the dying. That commitment lies at the heart of every community.

# data[].attributes.body
I have no argument to present. I have only the story of Jesus and the stories of those who trust in the life-giving truth of his life and his word. These stories show me a new way of living and a new way of dying, and I have a profound desire to show that way to others.

# data[].attributes.body
Our death may be the end of our success, our productivity, our fame, or our importance among people, but it is not the end of our fruitfulness. In fact, the opposite is true: the fruitfulness of our lives shows itself in its fullness only after we have died.

# data[].attributes.body
The gospel writer John, writing many years after Jesus’ death, clearly showed the intimate connection between our being children of God and our being brothers and sisters of one another. He said, “Let us love, then, because God loved us first. Anyone who says I love God and hates his brother or sister, is a liar, since whoever does not love the brother or sister that can be seen, cannot love God who cannot be seen. Indeed this is the commandment we have received, that whoever loves God, must also love his brother and sister” (1 John 4:19–21

# data[].attributes.body
If we live toward death as toward an event that separates us from people, death cannot be other than a sad and sorrowful event. But if we grow in awareness that our mortality, more than anything else, will lead us into solidarity with others, then death can become a celebration of our unity with the human race. Instead of separating us from others, death can unite us with others; instead of being sorrowful, it can give rise to new joy; instead of simply ending life, it can begin something new.

# data[].attributes.body
I have always wanted to be a good shepherd for others, but I have always known, too, that good shepherds lay down their own lives — their pains and joys, their doubts and hopes, their fears and their love — for their friends.

# data[].attributes.body
Once we have come to the deep inner knowledge—a knowledge more of the heart than of the mind—that we are born out of love and will die into love, that every part of our being is deeply rooted in love and that this love is our true Father and Mother, then all forms of evil, illness, and death lose their final power over us and become painful but hopeful reminders of our true divine childhood.