A Mother Mourns Her Child

If you're a parent, you may want to think twice about reading this one. I don't know about you, but every time I hear about something terrible happening to someone else's child my mind races to imagine it happening to one of mine and it's never a good experience. Fr. Jonathan has a wonderful post on just this subject, having recently attended a wake for a friend's five year old child.

Then came the clincher. It seems Joshua was beyond his years in wisdom, and likewise his mother. She told it like this:

“I remember him asking me about Jesus' death: 'Why did He have to die on the cross? Why did they take His clothes off? Why did He have blood on Him? Did it hurt? Why did the soldiers do that to Him?' And I would give him the answers over and over again:

He did it because He loves us. He did it because He is always with us. He did us to help us because He knew we would suffer. So that we would know that our God also knows how to suffer. He is always so close to us, especially when we suffer.”

Requiescat in pace, Joshua. God apparently had a very short mission for you, which one can only believe you accomplished with flying colors.