Death comes before rolling away the stone…

Thanks to The Corner for pointing to this quote of Richard Rohr’s, which concludes in this way:

"I think perhaps we have rolled away the stone too quickly--with our happy alleluias and too easy appreciations--as a result we are neither softened nor solidified by all of our losses. Our pain, sadness, and tragedies are not teaching us but only deafening us and blinding us. And they are our greatest teachers, even though we are never quite sure what it is that they have taught us. We only know we are larger, deeper, and ready to live without the stone."