ETERNAL   LIFE

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily for this Friday after the Epiphany  is, “Eternal Life.”

That’s the key message in today’s first reading: Eternal Life.

It’s one of the key themes in this first reading.

Here’s how today’s first reading ends:

And this is the testimony:
God gave us eternal life,
and this life is in his Son.
Whoever possesses the Son has life;
whoever does not possess the Son of God does not have life.

I write these things to you so that you may know
that you have eternal life,
you who believe in the name of the Son of God.

That’s enough for me. Amen. Amen.

PEOPLE ARE LIVING LONGER

People are living a lot longer today than they were 100 - 200 - 1000 years ago.

But life expectancy and how long people live  are tricky statistics, because child deaths were much more frequent in the past.. Then we can add: plus the medicines back then were nothing like today - plus technology - plus medical knowledge. There has been lots of improvement.

Question: Do people of today have less fears and wonderings how long we’re  going to last - than in the past?  I would think so, but each of us has to answer that one for ourselves.

Then  there are death reminders: the death of an old classmate or neighbor about our age. Then there is the obituary column - much less read than in the past. Then we find ourselves driving past a cemetery or we spot a hearse and a funeral procession and thoughts of death whisper in our ear.

Then we can put our own reminders into our surroundings.  They used to put a skull at the feet of various  saint statues. We can put a death memorial card on a bathroom  or bedroom mirror.

John Donne [1572-1631] - who is famous for his “No Man Is an island Poem” - in which we hear “When the bell tolls, it tolls for you.”  Well when he became a priest in the Anglican Communion, he moved away from his worldly ambitions.

Interestingly, had his portrait painted - but in a winding sheet - the kind they wrapped the dead in. For the painting, he also had his hands and body arranged as a corpse. Then he had that picture in his room, next to his bed, as a reminder of his mortality.

A SENSE OF HUMOR

When it comes to death,  having a sense of humor can help. Can I laugh at wrinkles.  Can I laugh at the saying, “Old age is an organ recital.”

H.L. Mencken [1880-1956] wrote his own epitaph, “If after I depart this vale, you ever remember me and have thought to please my ghost, forgive some sinner and wink your eye at some homely girl.”  This was engraved on a plaque in the lobby of the Baltimore Sun.

I would also think, besides humor, faith would help. If we think by faith and have God in our lives, we can relax and put all in God’s hand.

CONCLUSION: PRAYER

Our gospel for today can get us to look at this life health problems, I went with our  first reading for today and looked at death.

I spoke about having the faith and the hope to say to God: “I don’t know if there is anything after this - but I’ll take you’re promise of eternal life.”

Then add, Thomas’ prayer: “Lord I believe, help my unbelief.”