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<\/p>\nWe have had a lovely summer day today \u2013 just the right mix of breeze, sun and greenery around. No storm, no rain, no heat. No terrorist attacks or threats of such. Reports of stable economy on TV, a cup of morning coffee and a book on patio table, birds at the feeder in the garden. Peace and quiet prosperity that seem to have no end.<\/p>\n
The church we went to in the morning was also near perfect, both in its architecture and interior decoration which here in Canada tends to be on a severe side, with plenty of bare wall and little religious art, yet genteel and warm.<\/p>\n
Flower beds which surrounded the tipi- shaped round structure of solid brick seemed to be smiling to the parishioners slowly entering the carved wooden door.
\nOur friend\u2019s coffin was standing in the porch, surrounded by family members and friends who, once in a while, would come close and look at his quiet face and rosary-twined hands.
\nYes, it was a funeral we were attending on this lovely summer day, one of those days when one is tempted to deny the very existence of death.\u00a0 Yet here we were, looking at ravages of the enemy of life, stunned by our friend\u2019s stillness.<\/p>\n
I do not think I will ever get used to death and I am sure I am not alone in it.
\nIn the faithless West we do everything to relegate death and dying from the public sphere, language and symbols.\u00a0 There are many well-intended efforts to fulfill dying people\u2019s last wishes, a trip to Las Vegas for instance, of a meeting with a famous film star.. a last minute wedding\u00a0 – but nothing that would be truly lasting beyond that last moment.
\nSuffering should be invisible to the public eye – and possibly terminated, mourning\u00a0\u00a0 not\u00a0 observed. The usual sentiment, expressed right after the condolences is that \u201clife must go on\u201d.\u00a0 The dead are to be forgotten.\u00a0 They are last year\u2019s news.<\/p>\n
Outside the Catholic Church there is little understanding\u00a0 of this inescapable monumental transition:
\nFrom this limited life here to the unlimited THERE.
\nFrom spiritual numbness, from seeing dimly, as if through the veil \u2013 to seeing face to Face.
\nFrom lying to ourselves about our sins and\u00a0 denying them \u2013 to seeing them in the light of God\u2019s purity and love.
\nFrom paralysing physical suffering and mental anguish –\u00a0 to all that boundless God\u2019s freedom and joy unlimited.
\nOnly the Catholic Church pays attention to need of spiritual preparedness for passing through the Gate to eternity.<\/p>\n
The first step leading to the Gate is always faith \u2013 and all that it involves. Baptism and the Sacraments open this Gate wide, but we must watch our step so that we do not shut it with un-repented grave sins.<\/p>\n
The need for lifelong effort to build up strong faith in God is never as obvious as at the time of final illness and death, especially when it is sudden.\u00a0 It is for a reason that in Rosary we beg Mary, with each single prayer, that she prays for us \u201cnow and at the hour of our death\u201d.
\nThe lucky devotees of Rosary utter this plea thousands of times over years…<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The second step to the Gate is trust. The simplest of words, \u201cJesus, I trust you\u201d can open the Gate in an instant \u2013 no matter how sinful we had been.
\nThe third step, I think, is \u201cright mindfulness\u201d ( as Buddhists would say but mean something different by these words)\u00a0 which Jesus expressed by\u00a0 words
\n\u201cProvide money bags for yourselves that do not wear out,
\nan inexhaustible treasure in heaven
\nthat no thief can reach nor moth destroy.
\nFor where your treasure is, there also will your heart be.\u201d
\nFewer attachments here make for a light journey There.
\nAt every step we must be watchful and prepared. For what?\u00a0 For the day and hour of our death.
\n.. be like servants who await their master\u2019s return from a wedding,
\nready to open immediately when he comes and knocks\u201d.
\nAnd
\n\u201cYou also must be prepared, for at an hour you do not expect,
\nthe Son of Man will come.\u201d
\nAlas..
\n\u201cMuch will be required of the person entrusted with much,
\nand still more will be demanded of the person entrusted with more.\u201d
\nAnd here is when we rightly tremble..<\/p>\n
\u201cStay awake and be ready!
\nFor you do not know on what day your Lord will come\u201d<\/p>\n
We have had a lovely summer day today \u2013 just the right mix of breeze, sun and greenery around. No storm, no rain, no heat. No terrorist attacks or threats of such. Reports of stable economy on TV, a cup of morning coffee and a book on patio table, birds at the feeder in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n