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A Tragic Death and the Way the Church Responded

A Catholic friend of mine shared this with me recently:

Emma, a lifelong Christian, wife, and mother of three, is an enthusiastic member of our local church. She said yes to starting a mother’s small group, yes to singing in the choir, yes to helping at the school. A sunny personality, Emma loves those around her with the love of Jesus.

When her family tragically lost their oldest son, Liam, to an accident, the church community responded with an outpouring of love. Meals were brought to them for a month. Rosaries and prayers were said. The community gathered in the streets to welcome her son home.

And at the son’s funeral, his father spoke of Liam’s well-formed habit of always ending a call with “I love you” and demonstrating his care to family and friends, something that they can all treasure now that he’s gone. Liam’s actions weren’t spontaneous. It was learned from the example of his family and, ultimately, God.

It was God and Christ who loved Liam, Liam’s mother Emma, and Liam’s family, first. It was God who loved us all first.

“We love because He first loved us.”

1 John 4:19

A Small Part of Something Bigger

Maybe you’re like me and the first thing that strikes you about that story is how terrible it is that Emma and her family lost their Liam. I can’t imagine what they went through. Nothing like that has ever happened to me.

But then I started thinking about the way her church responded. I had a couple of initial thoughts:

“Well, isn’t that what her church family is supposed to do?”

And,

“Yeah, people gathered around Emma and the rest of Liam’s grieving family, but, I mean, each person probably just did something relatively small. Individually, they brought a meal or two, said a prayer or two, spoke a charitable supportive word or two.”

But then something hit me. What would Emma and her family have to say about it? From what I know about the situation, they felt the love of Jesus in profound ways–during the absolute worst time in their lives. They felt the presence of Christ right when they needed him most.

All those little services made up a very big thing.

That thought struck me because of where I’m at in the book I’m reading by St. Thérèse of Lisieux. In that little book, St. Thérèse talks about “doing little services.”

Speaking of her service to Christ, she said,

I made mine consist in simply checking my inclinations, keeping back an impatient answer, doing little services to those around me without setting a store thereby, and a hundred other things of the kind.

A hundred other things of the kind.

A hundred little things.

Your little things make a big difference.

Notes:

Thérèse of Lisieux, The Little Way: Reflections on the Joy of Smallness in God’s Infinite Love, Whitaker House, April 4, 2023