LIFE  AND  THEN  DEATH: 

IS THAT  ALL THERE  IS? 

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this 22^nd  Monday in Ordinary Time is, “Life and Then Death: Is That All There Is?”

Today’s  first reading from Paul’s First Letter to the Thessalonians 4: 13-18^th triggers this topic and this question for me.

Paul says we all fall asleep - we all die - but on the word of the Lord - there is the waking up - the resurrection.

THE METAPHOR OF GOING TO SLEEP

I find that metaphor - comparing the letting go called “sleep” - to the letting go called “death” - in lot of the literature about death.

Is it as simple as that?

If we make it to 80 there are some 29,200 goings  to sleep.  Ooops!  As we get older there are thousands and thousands more goings to sleep and wakings up - that that - more and more as we get older.

I always thought it would make a great night prayer - to compare the letting go when going to bed at night to the letting go called death.

God of the Night,

here I am letting go of all control

as I wander into the realm of sleep.

If I don’t wake up for the morning light,

God my God, please be on the beach,

making breakfast for me

on this other side of life. Amen. [1]

So maybe in a way, it is as simple as that: each going to sleep is a mini-death - and someday we won’t wake up because we’ve moved into a maxi-death.

LAST WEEK - IT ALL DEPENDS

Last week I was talking with a guy about an upcoming family funeral.  He said that in his family there were not that many deaths - and then he added, “This is sort of new for me.”

I’d hear that because we have had many family funerals.

I read somewhere that the first one is the toughest  - and each death after that makes the next one easier and easier.

I don’t know if that’s true.  I would think it all depends on who died and our relationship with them - and who we are.

I have learned life is loaded with lots of opportunities to say, “It all depends.”

I find it saddest when I’m with someone who doesn’t believe in life after death.

I’ll never forget the moment I stood at my brother’s grave with my brother’s best friend, Marty, and he said, “I don’t believe that there is anything after this.”

I said, “Some Jews believe in life after death.”

When his wife, Gloria, was dying last year she was joking about being together in heaven with my brother and laughing at all of us down below.

As I sat there with her and her cancer and her family - the only thing I heard was hope: “She knows there’s a there after this.”

So as I stood there in a Jewish cemetery a month later, I hoped and hoped that she and my brother were looking down on us - with joy and peace and eternal happiness.

To add to that joy - after that funeral in that Jewish cemetery, we headed 4 miles away to a Catholic cemetery - and stood in prayer with Marty and his 3 kids at my brother’s grave.

So life - it all depends.

So too eternal life - you never know.

Today’s first reading triggers these thoughts - no wonder it’s often read at funerals.

This is the oldest New Testament reading - from around 50 or 51 - and its message is Jesus Christ - he’s the one who takes us through death to eternal life.

I like the last line in today’s first reading: “Therefore, console one another with these words.”

Many people have.

CONCLUSION

Today’s gospel - Luke 4:16-30 - the scene of Jesus walking into his family synagogue in Nazareth -  brings us back to life.

Right now, we’re not at a funeral Mass.

We’re at this Mass - and our job is to hear Isaiah and Jesus Christ - and then to go out from here today and fulfill their words - by bringing glad tidings to the poor, liberty to those who feel trapped, sight to the blind, freedom to those who feel they are oppressed - and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Amen.


NOTE

[1] Read the Gospel post resurrection stories - especially those in John and especially John 21: 1-14