So many people today seem to be searching for wisdom in light of global challenges. The early 20th century American humorist, actor and author Will Rogers, for example, noted we could slow the aging process down if it had to work its way through Congress. Now here's a bit of wisdom I like: may your troubles be less, may your blessings be more, and may nothing but happiness come through your door. That's my prayer for our veterans.
The Book of Wisdom is a collection of sayings about how to live. In today’s reading the author personified wisdom as a woman; and wisdom is one with God. The author challenges us to seek true wisdom: a right relationship with God and with our fellow human beings. The living Christ is the source of all wisdom.
The author may be posing this question to us: do we have our priorities straight? First things first. Our relationships.
Paul in his letter to the Christian community at Thessalonica in Greece speaks about the triumphant return of Jesus at the end time. Paul writes that the resurrection of Jesus is the guarantee of our own resurrection. Yes, we believe, despite the evils on this planet, good ultimately will triumph with the glorious second coming of Jesus and the transformation of our universe into a new heaven and a new earth.
In the Gospel according to Matthew, Jesus tells a parable or story about preparing to meet God in the mystery of death. The “oil” can be understood as our good works; the “absence of oil”, the lack of good works. Seize every opportunity to do good now. Why? Because we don’t know the day or hour of our death. The news everyday underscores this truth. People suddenly die: in natural disasters, auto crashes or mass shootings or drug overdoses. Life can be short. So seize every opportunity to do good. “Be prepared” is not simply a Scout motto. It’s an everyday Christian motto.
Today’s Gospel calls to my mind a medieval fable about a businessman who sent an employee to the Baghdad marketplace. There the employee saw the figure of death. Death seemed to look threateningly at him. He rushed back to his employer and begged for a horse so that he could flee. The businessman obliged and the employee galloped off to the City of Samara. Later, the businessman went to the Baghdad market and he too saw the figure of death. He asked why he had stared so threateningly at his employee. Death replied, “That was a look of surprise. I was surprised to see him in Baghdad. You see, I have an appointment with him in the City of Samara tonight.”
This fable reinforces the theme of watchfulness or readiness. Are we ready to meet God in the mystery of death? If not today, when will we be ready? What do we have to do today in order to be ready? We know that there are some things we can do to delay death. We can exercise and eat the right foods. We can stop smoking, and so on. But there’s a basic truth: we ultimately will have to keep an appointment with death: some time, some day, some year! But the good news is this. As faith people, we know that the God who gave us life will transform our earthly self into a new indescribable heavenly self. That's the Easter message.
So how do we prepare to meet God? First, value each day as a gift from God and live today as best we can. Make every day worth living.
Emerging medical technologies may soon be able to lengthen our years into the hundreds. But the underlying question remains, “Will it still be worth living?” An increase in lifespan is of little value unless it is a life of quality. Interestingly a surgeon, Atul Gawande, wrote a bestseller titled “Being Mortal.” It's a narrative about the care and treatment of the elderly and the dying, as care evolved over the last century to what it is today and could become tomorrow. Gawande questions whether employing technologies to lengthen a life at the expense of a quality life is the right thing to do. The question becomes when to “let go,” when to stop treatments that likely don’t work. Gawande asks, why submit the dying to the full panoply of procedures only to see them merely exist in institutions and lose their independence. After all, birth and death are integral to the cycle of life.
St. Paul did not see prolonging life as a major goal; he wrote to the Philippians, “for me, life is Christ, and death is gain.” (Philippians 1:21). Indeed, Paul saw death as of greater worth. Yet, Jesus made Paul's life profoundly worth living.
We were created to live in a relationship with God through Jesus Christ by the power of the Spirit. Without that relationship we will feel empty deep inside. As St, Augustine wrote, “God, you have made us for yourself and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.” Yes, no matter who we are or what we do, our true purpose is to be in relationship with God. That's what makes life worth living.
People try to fill their emptiness with different things. For some, it's alcohol or money or status or so-called “expensive toys.” For St. Paul, a life worth living is knowing Christ “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom.” (Colossians 2:2–3).
Let's face it. Sometimes, don’t we wish our circumstances were different? Yet, even when we're facing “out of the blue” challenges, we should be confident God can and does work through us in ways we may not expect. When St. Paul, for example, wrote his letter to the Philippians, he was a prisoner, awaiting trial and possible execution. Yet, he believed that God could work in him even then and there. Pray, like St. Paul, that we may be holy both inwardly and outwardly. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the theologian who was executed for standing up against Nazism, put it well: “Your life as a Christian should make non-believers question their disbelief in God.”
Paul’s life was centered on Christ. His desire was for Christ to “be magnified in his body, whether by life or by death.” (Phil 1:20) Though Paul longed to be with Christ, part of him also wanted to stay alive because he knew it would mean “fruitful labor” for Christ. Paul took every opportunity, no matter what the circumstances, to spread the gospel, the good news: Jesus Christ is alive. He was a missionary disciple.
We too are called to be missionary disciples, to do the right thing, to make our life worth living. You've heard the saying, “Cowardice asks the question, is it safe? Expediency asks, is it politic? Vanity asks, is it popular? But, conscience asks, is it right?” Yes, many times in life, the first question we have to ask is, “What is the right thing to do?” And then just do it. Then our “lamps” will be filled with the oil of good works when we meet God in the mystery of death.
