I almost thank John Guillaumier for once more challenging me to air my views alongside his. This time it is about the prayer of a distraught and helpless mother who lost her son in a horrible mishap (February 5).

I believe in eternal life, which can be reached only through death. So I am very sorry for the mother but quite happy for the child and very grateful to God.

This was my daily attitude in my recent ministry as chaplain in a palliative care hospice. I think it helped me and the bereaved relatives of so many of our late patients. It did not remove the painful loss but it gave them hope that their beloved one was in good hands and they will meet again.

I often quoted from St John’s letter: “It is true that what we shall be we do not know but when He (Christ) appears (at the timeless moment of death) we shall be like Him because we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2).

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