Are You and I Ready?

These days, I keep on receiving news of death of someone I know or someone related to people I know.   I visited the wake of the dad of my friend in Loyola, Guadalupe.  Unfortunately, my friend was not there.  It was her sister whom I consoled but I think it was the other way around.  She was the one who consoled me when she said that she has accepted the death of her dad and in retrospect, she thinks that her dad’s illness was a blessing in disguise because it was his illness that made their family intact and much closer to each other.

Death is a certainty that each one of us will face one day.  No one can escape this certainty.  However, in spite of the fact that  it is sure to come one day, why is it that we consider it an enigma?  Is it because we believe that there is life after death and we are not familiar with that kind of life which some people call eternity?  Does one’s life story end with death?  Are you and I ready to face it when it comes?  These questions are mind boggling.  I remember an anecdote I heard several years ago when I first attended  a circle in an Opus Dei center.  There was a man who was jogging when somebody shouted at him from a distance: Juan, your wife gave birth!  And instinctively, he ran as fast as he could.  After around ten minutes of running, he suddenly stopped and gave it a thought ... why am I running? ... my wife gave birth? ... I don't have a wife... And worse, my name is not Juan!

We can be like this young man, running our life without direction, only to find out in the end that time is running out on us.  Time flies so fast.  It's as if we just celebrated Christmas yesterday and now in a few weeks time, we will soon enter the season of Lent on Ash Wednesday, February 22, 2012.  We need to manage our time well before it manages us.  God is so generous in giving us twenty four hours everyday without fail.  But at the end of our life here on earth, God will ask us for an accounting of what we did with the time he gave us.  Are you and I ready to account for it?

I reproduce below an email I received from a friend some weeks ago about a beautiful explanation of death:

~DEATH~ 
WHAT A WONDERFUL WAY TO EXPLAIN IT .  A sick man turned to his doctor as he was preparing to leave the examination room and said, 'Doctor, I am afraid to die. Tell me what lies on the other side.' Very quietly, the doctor said, 'I don't know.'  'You don't know? You're a Christian man, and don't know what's on the other side?' The doctor was holding the handle of the door; on the other side came a sound of scratching and whining, and as he opened the door, a dog sprang into the room and leaped on him with an eager show of gladness. Turning to the patient, the doctor said, 'Did you notice my dog? He's never been in this room before. He didn't know what was inside. He knew nothing except that his master was here, and when the door opened, he sprang in without fear. I know little of what is on the other side of death, but I do know one thing... 

I know my Master is there and that is enough.'





May today there be peace within you. 

May you trust God that you are exactly 
Where you are meant to be. 
I believe that friends are quiet angels 
Who lift us to our feet when our wings 
Have trouble remembering how to fly. 







This is my short consideration to the foregoing: 

It is good to think of death as seeing our good and generous Master.  We will surely see Him if we have faithfully obeyed all his commands, for we will die the way we lived!