What do we want for those we love?  I don't think we have to look too deeply into our hearts to discover the answer:  we want those whom we love to be alive and well and with us forever.

But our love is not strong enough to bring that about.  Those whom we love get sick, and if the sickness is serious enough there is little we can do about it.  Those whom we love die, and we can do nothing about that.  We ourselves get sick and die, and those who love us can do nothing about that.  So it would seem that love is not stronger than death.

Well, certainly our love is not stronger than death.  But there is Someone whose love is stronger than death, whose love can in fact bring about all that love wants to achieve. That Someone is God the Father who is Love.  Because he is love, not only does he want all those whom he loves to be alive and well and with him forever – but he can and does bring that about for any and all who are interested in benefitting from his love's victory.

Who are the fortunate ones who are the beloved of the Father?  First of all at the top of the list is Jesus, his Beloved Son (Mt 3:17; 17:5).  The Father loved his Son and wanted him to be alive and well and with him forever – so he raised Jesus from the dead and exalted him to his right hand, from where Jesus now intercedes for us.

Now all this is vitally important for us.  The life, death and resurrection of Jesus were not undertaken for himself, but as we say in the Creed, all these mighty deeds of God were carried out "for us and for our salvation".  That is, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus were precisely intended to make us the beloved of the Father. Up till then we were estranged from the Father; we needed to be reconciled with him so that the victory of his love could now be effective in our lives.  In this way the Father's victory of love over disaster, destruction, loss and death is now made our victory, in and through the victory Jesus accomplished for us.

And this victory is not something we have to wait for; no, the seeds of that victory of Jesus' love for us are already working themselves out in our daily lives – through our faith in Jesus, our baptism into his death and resurrection, and especially in our being fed by him in the eucharist (Jn 6:25-59).

It is tragic, therefore, to see so many people selling their lives so very short, and the lives of their loved ones so very short, by living out those lives as if God did not exist, or if he does exist, as if he makes no difference.  Why let death and loss have the final word when it does not have to be that way?  Why spend only this life with those whom we love, when love's eternal victory is made so easily available to us all?  And is not love's victory both now and forever what our hearts are really made for in the first place?