[When Martha told Jesus that her brother Lazarus had died,] Jesus said to her, "Your brother will rise." Martha said to him, "I know he will rise, in the resurrection on the last day." Jesus told her, "I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?" She said to him, "Yes, Lord, I have come to believe that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who is coming into the world." 

There is often something quite special between an older brother and a younger one. Many times the older brother is quite protective of the younger one, and the bond of family evolves into real friendship. Charlie St. Cloud in the movie named after him and his younger brother Sam had such a relationship. Then Sam died in an accident that almost took Charlie's life as well. The movie pictures Sam being present to Charlie even though Sam had passed away. Charlie was able to see him, and they were both able to keep the promise to never forget each other. What the movie presents as factual was actually a psychological problem, namely, people who had close relationships in this life will often not allow themselves to let go of the other even after death. Charlie gave up a promising career and an education in the process.             

A person familiar with the Christian Scriptures knows that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead; in fact, raising from the dead was one of the wonders that Jesus performed in his earthly life. But the important fact of the story of Lazarus and his sisters is that it did not matter whether Jesus brought Lazarus back to life or not; what mattered was that Lazarus was already alive in the eyes of God. As Jesus tells Martha, the believer in Jesus will never die.

From the movie named after him, we do not know whether Charlie St. Cloud was a believer in Jesus. It seemed that he was, given the fact that his brother received a Christian burial. But we see from the film that if he had such a belief, it was not enough to counteract the sorrow of his brother's loss. Charlie discovered that he had the gift of being able to converse with the dead, and in that light, he was able to keep the memory of his brother Sam always present to him. In effect, what he did was nothing more than hold himself back from his own life and thus never live up to the potential that he had.

There is often intense pain with the loss of a loved one, especially when we have lived with that person every day for a significant amount of time. If a person does not have faith in an after-life, such a loss can cause total despair and depression. The person who loses the loved one may not be able to function very well in the time that he/she has left on the earth, exactly the situation of Charlie St. Cloud. But if a person is a believer, he/she will take heed of the Lord's statement to Martha in the Gospel of John: our life here is merely the beginning of our eternal life. The faith-filled person knows that because of Jesus' actions, we are celebrating eternal life right now, and our earthly death is nothing more than a pause as we continue to live the life that continues with God. 

PRAYER

Good and gracious God, dealing with death is one of the most difficult things that we have to do, whether it is our own deaths or the deaths of loved ones. Give us the grace to listen to your Son and have faith in his promise that we will live forever with you. Be with us, we pray. 

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©2007 Capuchin Province of Mid-America
Fr. Mike Scully is a member of the Capuchin Province of Mid-America