As I listened to a podcast by the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, one statements struck me, ” We often go around living our lives as if there is no death.” Human life is in fact finite. But we still struggle through our daily chores, set goals for 5 years ahead, invest every hard earned penny into doubling it for a better life 10 years later, Netflix and chill, holding grudges and hate, being envious of that one neighbor with the best car or house or body.
As a child brought up in a country like India where there are so many religions, I remember my teacher in school explaining the winning argument when asked which is the best religion — no other God has defeated death like Jesus! While the pretext of the entire class was juvenile and religions should never compete but provide harmony, I was fascinated by the concept of death and life.
Today as a medical professional, I learnt how to pronounce a death, how to break the bad news ( never ever gets easy). From deaths of unborn children, extremely premature babies to maternal deaths due to so many reasons to the death of a debilitated cancer struck elderly. I saw them all, did the resuscitation and while some survived , some did not!
Today news is flooded with my country having maximum deaths due to Covid 19 virus daily, some have mass cremations, some have mass burials while some bodies are pushed into a river and float across the water to a new place. It is sad and a reality — DEATH!
Today the gospel reads
A little while and you will not see me,
and again a little while and you will see me’?
Amen, amen, I say to you,
you will weep and mourn, while the world rejoices;
you will grieve, but your grief will become joy.”
While our Lord defeated the one inevitable truth of our human life, we are yet to comprehend how we are living every day with no regard for the very same fact. Minor annoyances, unhappiness with our financial state or the fact we cant travel or attend church with the pandemic restrictions, every one of these events are meaningless when we are on our death bed.
Let us focus on the onward journey after death, where we meet Jesus at D day and wont be cribbing about how our neighbors dog destroyed our garden or the number of deadlifts you could do, but will be mourning why did not we pay more attention to our prayer lives and love each other more, hate less, criticise less and be less worried about random issues.
Today as the Lord ascends to heaven and looks down to us and says , “do you think I should take you with me ?” what should our answer be.. “of course!! I said all my prayers and attended all sunday masses even daily mass online, I gave tithe and even took a trip to the Holy land!” Jesus smiles and says ” So what happened between you and your brother or neighbor or the co worker who didnt have fancy shoes ?”
Let us just pause our daily routine and think, if I were to die today , is my life the way Jesus wants it and will I be getting a ticket to heaven ?? Am I worthy of being in heaven? Or do I still have to make amends with every one aroun?
Prayer:
Thank you Lord for your words of wisdom. Help us to find our life with small deeds of kindness and love to every one in this time of distraught. Forgive us for being selfish and critical in our daily lives and help us to open up our hearts to everyone more like you! AMEN.
