Death is not the end

Eternal Rest grant unto them, O Lord and let perpetual light shine upon them. My their souls and all the souls of the faithful departed, rest in peace. Amen.

As we celebrate today the feast of All Souls, I am reminded of the line in the Preface for Christian Death I: Lord, for Your faithful people life is changed, not ended. We have such a great hope and comfort in our own mortality if we only accept it and embrace it.

I know that this is a difficult task. Accepting the fact that we will all die someday is looked upon in our society as macabre. If you think about your own mortality, then there is something wrong with you. But yet, we as Christians are exhorted in the Gospels to live our lives as if today is our last day on this earth.

It is in that fullness, in that total awareness that our life is but a vapor (Psalm 39:5) that we are able to then minister to others more openly. We can offer more of ourselves to others, because we realize that there may not be a tomorrow with which to offer them more of ourselves. We can be honest with ourselves and with others because we know that we will die eventually and that we will then have to answer for that dishonesty.

The realization that death is inevitable also gives us the strength to fight against sin. Which one of us wants to die in a state or mortal sin? I am certain that none of us want to face our Maker with that to answer for! As such, facing our mortality helps us to ask ourselves about the consequences of our actions. Not just our actions towards others, but our actions towards ourselves too. It also helps to put into perspective the day to day struggles we endure. Because in the cosmic scheme of things, our day to day struggles are small in comparison.

And when that moment comes, as it will for all of us, for us to shuffle off this moral coil, we can pass in peace confident in the fact that for the faithful life is not ended but changed. We have the confidence that all those who came before us will be there once again to welcome us into the next world. And those that come behind us, can be confident that we will be there to welcome them when their time comes as well.

God Bless!