where is thy sting

So. For Halloween this year, I got assigned to do an exhibition on St. Catherine of Siena and the Work of Mercy of Burying the Dead. Just my luck hahah. I've been mildly death avoidant since my grandparents and relatives passed away, but as I was researching about Catholic funerals, it struck me how beautiful the funeral service is and how much joy there is!! It turns away the focus from me, sorrowing me, to the joy of heaven—of being able to look forward to, as I once wrote, being in the arms of your most Beloved, in the arms of the one who loves you the most in the entire universe—God. And I think that maybe this topic is so suitable because I remained so long in the sadness until one day during prayer, I was told that I could and even should dance for joy even though death had happened o:

Seems counterintuitive. Why should our mourning be turned into dancing?

1. The resurrection is victory over death

The book of Zephaniah is one of those super overlooked books in the Old Testament. Zephaniah was one of many OT prophets who went prophesizing the day of judgement on Judah and Jerusalem and talked a lot about death and destruction on the cities cuz of their sins. But he also talked about something very beautiful, the restoration of Jerusalem:

"On that day it shall be said to Jerusalem:
Do not fear, O Zion;
    do not let your hands grow weak.
The Lord, your God, is in your midst,
    a warrior who gives victory;
he will rejoice over you with gladness,
    he will renew you in his love;
he will exult over you with loud singing
[...]
I will deal with all your oppressors
    at that time.
And I will save the lame
    and gather the outcast,
and I will change their shame into praise
    and renown in all the earth."

And you and I, we're Jerusalem, we're God's beloved children. What a promise he makes! Our warrior God promises that the burden of death won't last forever, he destroys it, he encourages us to press on, he saves the people who are oppressed by society, and the image that struck me the most—he sings! He rejoices over you and me.

And I think this is the gladness of the resurrection. Through his death on the cross, our God-man Jesus went down to the dead and rose from the dead, breaking the chains of death and claiming his title as God of all Life—so alive that even the finality of death couldn't hold him down. And that's the promise he talked about in Zephaniah (and other OT prophets) fulfilled!! Death and destruction are like meh for the Christian because our God has overcome it so that we too can have life even after death with him. Life with the one person who actually looks at the people on the social margins, the people who feel sometimes so invisible, and who says to them, "wow my child look at you! Your existence make me so happy."

Sometimes, I think saying goodbye is difficult because it's very long separation, and I'm not used to it. But y'know, I think about God singing because his children have come back to him, and I think that I'm very glad that the people I love have got the chance to (finally!) meet him face to face.