Love Never Dies Again
“But soon we shall die, and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living, and a land of the dead, and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.”—Thornton Wilder in The Bridge of San Luis Rey (HarperCollins, 1927), p. 107.
In his Foreword to The Bridge of San Luis Rey, Russell Banks reminds us that at the memorial service in New York for British victims of the attack on the World Trade Center, British Prime Minister Tony Blair read these closing sentences of Thornton Wilder’s novel. Of course, we hope that those we love will always feel our love throughout all eternity. But we also want to tell them about loved ones, such as our parents, siblings, and grandparents, that they may not have known.
Paul, in his first letter to the Corinthians, and Wilder, in this novel, both tell us that the best of love for each other never dies. This is a mystery, but I know in my heart it is true.
February 12th was my mother’s one-hundredth and two birthday. We did not always appreciate each other, but I still feel her love today. My parents died before I was ordained a deacon and before the birth of any of our grandchildren. Though my parents are not physically here, their love still surrounds us.
All the people in the picture at my parents’ wedding are now dead, but I so often feel lifted up by their presence in prayer and love. There are days when I feel a love whose only source may be the God of love. Sometimes, I sense love from specific individuals who have died.
I think of the group of women with whom I have been reading books once a week for more years than I can count. After a recommendation from one of our members, Lisa Brandom, we read Wilder’s The Bridge of San Luis Rey on our literary journey. I feel the love of each of these women every time we meet. One friend reminded us she would keep coming, even if we only read the phone book.
I now know I will feel their love in my heart for years to come, even after we can no longer meet.
Love is all we have to contribute to this life that will be lasting. Love is all we will carry with us into the life of the resurrection. Love is the bridge between these two territories.
