While almost everybody experiences loss, not everybody experiences recovery. Because of this there is a mountain of unresolved grief in society and often in our own lives, even though we may be completely unaware of it. When we lose someone that we love there is always suffering involved. The process by which we resolve our grief, and regain peace, is called grief. Freud called this ‘a job of work to be done’ and while it can be postponed, it can never be ultimately avoided. The only way out of grief is to go through it, and feel whatever it is that we need to feel. In terms of our soul journey a significant loss will not leave us as it found us, and has the potential to awaken us to deeper realities. A Jewish boy asked his father why it was taught in their tradition that God placed the Torah, the book of His teachings, on each human heart, and why not in each heart. His father replied that its because the human heart is so closed and it only gets cracked open by a big suffering like sorrow and only then is it ready to receive the Word.
Fr Jim Cogley