The holy apostle warns us “to be not sorrowful over those that sleep,” that is to say, the dead who were dear to us; “even as others who have no hope,”—the hope of the resurrection and of life eternal. For the custom of the holy Scriptures is to call the dead “those who sleep” dormientes; so that, having told us that they are asleep, we may hope to see them one day awake. And we sing again in the psalms, “Cannot he who sleeps awake?”
It is true that the sorrow which we feel on the death of a beloved one is in some sort natural. It is not a simple prejudice with which the horror of death inspires us; it is also much less reason than nature. The love of life is instinctive in man, who was not made to die, and who would never have been condemned to death but in punishment for his fault.
We must, then, be sad when death takes from us those we love; for, although we know that they do not leave us forever on this earth, and that we shall soon rejoin them, nevertheless their absence saddens our hearts. But if affliction comes upon us from one side, consolation reaches us from the other; if the infirmity of nature casts us down, faith raises us up; if the condition of humanity plunges us in grief, the promise of God heals us. This is why the apostle, though he does not forbid us to grieve, tells us to “be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope.”
Let sorrow be, then, permitted to our affection, but a sorrow which is tempered with hope. Let us weep for our dead, but let the joys of faith come promptly to dry our tears; for faithful souls have exchanged their lot for a happier one.
No, we have not lost those who have quit this earth, which we must soon leave ourselves. We have only sent them before us to a better world, where they shall be all the dearer to us, inasmuch as we shall know them better.