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.”
