An infant who lives but a few days

Few things, if any, are more heart wrenching than the death of a newborn child.

This tragedy was experienced quite frequently by people until modern technology and standards of care dramatically reduced the death rates of the newly born (modern technology and medical standards have also dramatically increased the intentional death rates of children still in the womb).

But of course, children and all the rest of us still die. Weeping, crying and mourning are still part of our lives – medical science cannot save us from tragedy and grief.

Today’s first reading (Isaiah 65:17-21) speaks directly to the human experience of tragedy and grief with God’s promise of a totally new and wonderful existence:

Lo, I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
The things of the past
shall not be remembered or come to mind.
Instead, there shall always be
rejoicing and happiness in what I create;
For I create Jerusalem to be a joy
and its people to be a delight;
I will rejoice in Jerusalem
and exult in my people.
No longer
shall the sound of weeping be heard there,
or the sound of crying;
No longer shall there be in it
an infant who lives but a few days,
or an old man who does not round out his full lifetime....

This promise from God becomes infinitely more powerful and wonderful through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as we hear at the very end of the New Testament (Revelation 21:1-4):

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,
and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God,
prepared as a bride adorned for her husband;
and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
"Behold, the dwelling of God is with men.
He will dwell with them,
and they shall be his people,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe away every tear from their eyes,
and death shall be no more,
neither shall there be mourning
nor crying nor pain any more,
for the former things have passed away."

In the meantime, we do the best we can: using what technology and knowledge we have to do good, without succumbing to technology’s easy temptations to do evil, and relying always upon the grace of God to pull us through whatever tragedies and difficulties we may face and to keep us faithful to him every moment of our lives until he himself calls us to that new heaven and that new earth of eternal life and happiness.