“I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” Jesus is our origin and Jesus is our destiny. This is the hope and challenge of our Christian faith.
            In baptism, each of us was given to Christ by the Father. We were born anew in Jesus Christ. We participate in the life of the Risen Christ here and now. Our baptism, therefore, marks the beginning of our life in Christ. The goal of our Christian life is to deepen the life of Christ in us through a life of prayer, of participation in the sacraments, reflection on the scriptures, and through our daily efforts to reflect his life in our own. All of our prayers, all of our Masses, all of our devout reading of scripture account for nothing, if they do not transform our hearts and minds so that our lives become an ever more faithful reflection of the life of Jesus Christ. Others have to see in us the compassion of Christ, experience in us the mercy of Christ, and encounter in us the welcome of Christ. How well do our lives reflect the life of the Risen Christ?
            If we are trying to grow each day in our faithfulness to the life and teaching of Jesus Christ, then when death comes for us it will be our passage into the fullness of life with Christ. We began our life with Christ and our life will end with our passage into eternal life in Christ. It is this hope that should encourage us to deepen our relationship with the Risen Christ now so that we have no fear of death but rather recognize death to be our victory. In the Mass of Christian burial, all of the symbols remind us that we began life in Christ and live in the hope that our lives will end in and with Christ. When the body is brought into the Church, it is blessed with the waters of baptism. The casket is then clothed with a white garment just as the newly baptized are clothed in white. The casket is then brought forward to the Paschal Candle – the light of Jesus Christ that was first lit at the Easter Vigil when we celebrate Christ’s victory over death.  We began life in Christ, we have lived our lives in Christ, and we will now live with Christ forever.
            May Christ truly be for each of us our Alpha and our Omega!
 
                               Fr.  Mark Hallinan, S.J.