LIKE A DROP OF MORNING DEW
"Because the whole world before You
is like a speck that tips the scales,
and like a drop of morning dew
that falls upon the ground."
(Wis 11:22)
"Man wastes away like a rotten thing,
like a garment that is moth-eaten."
(Job 13:28)
"Man that is born of a woman is of few days,
and full of trouble.
He comes forth like a flower,
and withers;
he flees like a shadow,
and continues not....
But man dies, and is laid low;
man breathes his last, and where is he?
As waters fail from a lake,
and a river wastes away and dries up,
so man lies down and rises not again;
till the heavens are no more
he will not awake,
or be roused out of his sleep."
(Job 14:1-2,10-12)
WHY DEATH? (I)
"God created man for incorruption,
and made him in the image of his own eternity,
but through the devil's envy death entered the world,
and those who belong to his party experience it."
(Wis 2:23)
WHY DEATH? (II)
"[S]in came into the world through one man
and death through sin."
(Rom 5:12)
FROM WORLD-BOUND EYES
"[W]e alone know we must die.
Animals do not know this,
do not entertain thoughts of impending extinction.
Thus death is at once the most commonplace of all happenings
(what could be more banal,
more drearily self-evident,
than the fact of one's own death?),
and at the same time the most painfully incomprehensible,
the least tolerable or welcome
of all the things
that conspire to overtake and destroy us.
Death seemingly "crushes
and scatters to the four winds
the little bit of meaning
that has been laboriously accumulated in a life,"
writes von Balthasar.
The basic "contradiction pervading all existence,"
he says,
remains utterly unresolvable on the purely human level
(Life out of Death)."
(Regis Martin, "Death," in Our Sunday Visitor's Encyclopedia of Catholic Doctrine, ed. Russell Shaw. Indiana, 1997)
"Instead of looking upon death as the key to the fulness of joy,
the tendency is to see it as the end of the road,
the check-out counter on what is for them
a kind of terrestrial shopping spree."
(Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God V, 80.1)
FINAL CALL
"In death, God calls man to himself.
Therefore the Christian can experience
a desire for death like St Paul's:
'My desire is to depart
and be with Christ' (Phil 1:23)."
(Catechism of the Catholic Church)
GOD DOES NOT DESIRE DEATH AS SUCH
God did not make death,
and he does not delight in the death of the living.
For he created all things that they might exist.
(Wis 1:13-14)
"Precious in the eyes of the Lord
is the death of his saints."
(Pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors sanctorum eius.)
(Ps 116:15)
"What great joy we will give to the Lord
when we present to him our professional work,
our apostolate,
those many many details of our service to our neighbours,
the joy we contributed to family life,
the efort we made to overcome our defects...."
(Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God V, 80.3)
TIME SPENT ON EARTH HAS TO BE TIME SPENT TO BUY HEAVEN
"Night comes, when no one can work."
(Jn 9:4)
"Look carefully then how you walk,
not as unwise men but as wise,
making the most of the time."
(Eph 5:15-16)
Eternity comes in contact with only one point in time,
and that is NOW.
(Cf Francis Fernandez, In Conversation with God V, 82.3)
TIME SPENT ON EARTH HAS TO BE SPENT WISELY AND METHODICALLY
"[A] methodical planning of our day and our week seem burdensome.
It might even seem to be harmful
by repressing a certain spontaneous activity that can be so energetic.
Yet appearances can be deceitful.
Spasmodic sprints in a long-distance race
will soon put an end to any hope
of finishing the course in good time.
The steady pace is what breaks the record."
(Eugene Boylan, The Spiritual Life of the Priest, p 136)
POURING ALL OF ONE'S MIND AND HEART AND HAND INTO EACH MOMENT
We ought "to make our decision once and for all,
giving all or each duty its due time,
and then ceasing to worry about it.
Age quod agis! ...
It is difficult enough to devote all one's energies
to any task and still be recollected in and with God,
but it would be impossible to do so
if we were needlessly uncertain
as to what we really should be doing at this particular moment."
(Eugene Boylan, The Spiritual Life of the Priest, p 136)
ST JOSEPH, PATRON OF A HAPPY DEATH
"Most blessed among men was Joseph,
in being attended at the hour of his death
by the Lord himself and his Mother....
Having thus triumphed over death,
bedecked in celestial light,
Joseph travelled to the House of the Father."
(Divine Office, Hymn Iste quem laeti)
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony.
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul with you in peace.
Amen.