The Healing Journey

September 10, 2026

“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.”
— Jesus to Martha

Fr. Peter Cipriani, pastor of St. Rose of Lima Parish, says a fundamental truth of our faith can be found in Christ’s words, “Blessed are those who mourn … for they shall be comforted.” Catholics are called “to be that comfort, but it’s not just any comfort. It’s the comfort of Christ.”

“When confronted with tragedies, there is, of course, that lingering and haunting immediate question, ‘why?’” he said in his homily for a Mass of Suicide Healing and Remembrance last year. “And though there are some who might insist there is no real ‘why’ to why some things happen, I would beg to differ.”

“Our loved ones did not take their own life,” he said. “They died of an illness. It was the sickness that took their life, similar to if it had been a heart attack or cancer or a car accident. If someone dies of a heart-attack, we don’t say that he killed himself although his body certainly did that to him. We say that the heart disease killed him. Our loved ones died of a disease and that disease was depression.”

He said that depression is “a deep sadness that lies to the one who has it…telling them they will never get better, there is no safe harbor, and there is no available kindness. This disease destroys a person’s ability to think, to reason rightly, to make decisions and ultimately to cope. How much blame would you assign someone with dementia for making a poor choice? This sadness is like a psychological form of dementia…”

He raised a commonly asked question of whether we can believe in a good God “amidst this turmoil and pain”? Families and friends of a suicide victim also ask, “What could we have done differently?” Or “did I say something or do something to cause or to aggravate this illness?” Father said that “is so extremely unlikely.”

Instead, it is appropriate to ask “How might I live differently, not because of feeling responsible for another’s death, but being responsible for a person’s life, having loved them and still loving them with such intensity and not allowing the sadness to suffocate that capacity for intense and more intense loving and believing.”

As believers we must make Jesus’ words to Martha, the sister of Lazarus, central to our faith: “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.”

This year’s Mass of Remembrance for loved ones lost to suicide and to pray for those who are grieving will be held September 30 at 7 p.m. at St. Rose of Lima Church, 46 Church Hill Road, Newtown.

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