God is the Father of this family we enjoy. We rightly sense that our relationship with them has not been terminated, only interrupted, and we know that some day each of us will be taken from this world, in one moment separated from some we love and in the same moment reunited with others we love, and above all with our Lord.

In Hamlet, Shakespeare called what lies beyond death “the undiscovered country.” People have given much thought to this country—and adopted remarkably different attitudes toward it.