Easter's Answer to the Hereafter

Dear Family,

 

               Japan doesn’t do Easter, so tonight in our English class we discussed this holiday with

our group.  After describing the manner in which we celebrate Easter and our belief in the resurrected Christ, as a way of engaging them in conversation, we invited them to describe their beliefs concerning the life after this one.  Varied opinions were expressed from a firm conviction of the resurrection to the opinion that death is the end of everything except in the memories of those who knew us. Several participants described how during the 3-day celebration of Obon each August, the Japanese gather as families and summon the souls of their departed ancestors for a reunion. Some guide them to their homes with lanterns, others pick them up at the cemetery in their cars and bring them home. In homes and community gathering places, people serve special foods and rehearse memories and stories of their loved ones who have passed on. After a few days of enjoying their association, they return the souls of the departed to their resting places and life goes on.

We appreciated the sharing for it reminded us anew of the transcendent value of our own family relationships.  We recalled the debt owed to parents and siblings, and to prior generations for the heritage we have received at their hands.  We realized anew that we have no greater treasure than our children, their spouses and our grandchildren.  It is for them that we would give everything we have, even our very lives if need be.  It is about the welfare of these and other loved ones, that we pray night and day, and surely their happiness, even years after the nest is empty, continues to direct our best efforts and control the very trajectory of our lives.

In Helprin’s novel, A Soldier of the Great War, as Allesandro nears the end of his long life he offers this prayer, a sort of benediction... “Dear God, I beg of you only one thing. Let me join the ones I love. Carry me to them, unite me with them, let me see them, let me touch them.”[i]  .  The conversation with our Japanese friends suggests to us that this desire is universal, that this may be the prayer of all people. 

As we retired to our bed after a long and busy day, we counted ourselves greatly blessed to be firmly sealed to loved ones by the incomparable power of the priesthood of the living God.  And our final prayer of the day is that in the hereafter we seek, if we prove worthy of it, we will greet every one of our loved ones with the sure and certain knowledge that throughout all eternity, no power can separate us.

We miss all of you and pray our Heavenly Father’s choice blessings will be with you. With much love, we remain your faithful far-eastern correspondents, 

Mom and Dad