The threshold of the birth of a child is mysterious - how can a human being be so alive - so vulnerable? But its stages of development are well known and we can chart the child’s progress through childhood to adulthood with a fair degree of accuracy.

The threshold of death takes us into uncharted territory. We do not know what happens to us after death.

Some claim to know what lies beyond - but often offer images that seem closer to earthly existence than to eternal life.

Others say that there is nothing. Some even hope that there is nothing.

In the face of the evidence of a body that begins the process of decomposition soon after death, the compilers of the Creed stood before the Mystery of death and said that this is not the end.

They looked to the body of the first fruits from the dead - Jesus - and saw in His glorious body the promise for our own. They sensed - in the face of all evidence to the contrary - that God would raise our mortal bodies - and transform them into the likeness of that of Jesus.

Neither they - nor we can explain how.

At this threshold we can - for now - draw back....

but one day, we will have to cross it....

The challenge will be the fulfilment of our life.

If we have dared to live gazing into the Mystery - allowing it to percolate into us and to deepen our knowledge and understanding, we will be well-prepared for this ultimate moment.

We may be afraid - of what we will find beyond the threshold. We may well need the prayer and loving farewells of those around us to help us to cross this final threshold.

But our experience of life lived on the threshold of Knowledge and Mystery will have taught us that Faith and trust go hand-in-hand - that Truth is infinitely richer and deeper than the human mind can comprehend.