We believe that when people are gathered together in Love God is Present
Good things happen, and life is full.

We believe that we are immersed in mystery
That our lives are more than they seem
That we belong to each other and to a Universe whose source
And destiny is God.

We believe that God is after us
Calling to us from the depth of human life.

We believe that God has risked himself to become human in Jesus.

In and with Jesus we believe that each of us
Is situated in the Love if God
And the pattern of our life will be His -
Through death to Resurrection.

We believe that the Spirit of Peace
Is present with us
As we gather to celebrate 
Our common existence,
The Resurrection of Jesus,
And the Faithfulness if God.

And most deeply we believe that
In our struggle to love
We incarnate God in the world.
And so aware are we of this wonderful thing
Of the sacrament of friendship and laughterWe become speechless before the joy in our hearts
And celebrate the Sacredness of all life
In the Eucharist.

The Hour of the Unexpected, J Shea, pp 36-37

All lovers come at last to Gethsemane,And wait there for the outcome of their loving.
Loving itself is a beginning,
An Invitation,
An offering.

Love does not compel but can only wait,
And the intensity of the waiting is the measure of the loving.
And to wait no longer is to cease to love.

The robe of royal purple in which he is dressed by the soldiers does not fit.
It is too large: it is not his own.But it is not the mocking soldiery alone who dress Him in ill-fitting robes of earthly power: 
So also in art and imagination, do some of those who believe in Him.
Because they believe in the primacy of power, 
They attribute to Him the trappings of power
And adorn Him with its symbols:
Then, while showing respect to Him, they can continue to worship power
And take pride and satisfaction in their own power.

But the robe which belongs to him
His own robe
Is that 'dying crimson' which
Like a robe spreads o'er His Body on the Tree.
It is the robe of a life poured out,
Of power expended,
Of self given in love.

It is the wearer of this robe
That we must learn to worship.

W H Vanstone, 'Icons of the Passion' 

Grief is a wild ride.  When we are not in the middle of it we can map its contours, predict its stages and know the knot will finally unravel.  But when the loss of a loved one inhabits our soul, we become occupied territory and it can feel like the occupation will never end. 
Reflecting on the moment that Jesus washed his disciples feet, John Shea wrote,

'The water rushed like a river in spate,
 straight to their hearts.
They were embarrassed that He should be so poured out.
And then they remembered that it was with his own tears that
he raised Lazarus to life.'

I remember a very distressed young man who had lost his wife saying, "Someone 
should have told me that all marriages end in divorce or death!" Someone did, but he never heard it, even though he said it himself on his wedding day! The truth of eternal people grounded in time: the deeper the love, the deeper the grief.  And this is something we avoid thinking about when we give our hearts away.  In the world we inhabit, the advent of love is the seed of grief.  Even if we do not say it out loud, even if we only whisper it in the cellar of our hearts, love readies us for grief and for tears. 

And it is the same love that consoles us.  But we must trust this love and follow it to its birth place.  Here, love hints at something more.  It is this love that empowers us to stay with the sick and the dying and to visit the graves and make memory markers for our loved ones. 

In the beautiful film, Shadowlands, the story of a deep friendship which turns into love when Joy Gresham is diagnosed with bone cancer.  Joy tells CS Lewis as they begin loves journey, 'our happiness now is part of our pain then' and as she nears the end of her life she picks up the same golden thread and says, 'our pain now is part of our happiness then'. 

It is here that I find the Lazarus incident so beautiful. God's own Beloved Son, who sees from the inside out by His own interior radiance, holds us through all the losses and deaths we endure and brings us back to life in the far reaches of God.   His intimate presence is at the centre of our true self.  The more we contemplate and integrate Him, the more he becomes a gentle and enduring strength for us.  Sustained by Him we can grieve the loss of our friends and entrust them to Him. Love generates both grief and consolation, which is why St Paul said, 'Do not grieve like those who have no hope' (1 Thess 4:13) We grieve with hope when we stand side by side, shoulder to shoulder with a sobbing Jesus and hear Him cry,
'Lazarus, come out!!'