September 22 is the equinox, when daylight and nighttime are equal. While we in the South don’t experience the fall foliage, others do. Still all of us can see autumn as a season to harvest good memories and savor God’s blessings.
The word of God takes us back to the wisdom literature of ancient Israel. The author speaks about a person who always tries to do the right thing. Yet some evildoers want to murder him. So we might ask: why do bad things happen to good people?
The author of the letter of James asks: why do some people choose evil? Yes, why do some people at times choose wrong over right. Christianity calls this human condition “original sin,” the fall from grace described graphically in Genesis, chapter 3. Thus began the story of our salvation.
God so loved us that he sent his only Son so everyone who believes in him might have eternal life. In baptism, we become by grace what Jesus is by nature: sons and daughters of God our Father, called to live a life worthy of that status.
In the Gospel, Jesus speaks about his mortality. He challenges us to be servant leaders: serve one another even if it costs us dearly. Then Jesus predicts his own passion and death and resurrection. This mystery reveals our true destiny: to be in relationship with God in glory forever in a new, transformative life.
Jesus here brings us face to face with his and our own dying. The experience of death today is different from 100 years ago when people may have died in their 40s or 50s, often in their homes and surrounded with family and friends. Today some people may die in their 90s or 100s in hospitals or nursing homes, and perhaps alone.
A best seller “Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End” questions whether employing medical technology to lengthen life at the expense of quality of life is the right thing to do.
The author, a surgeon, describes three general patterns of decline. With an incurable disease where treatments may lengthen life but eventually the body wastes away; a chronic disease, such as emphysema, which is treatable but repeated relapses eventually siphon the life out of a person; and finally, there’s the pattern of old age called “frailty”: no life-threatening disease but a gradual decline in mental acuity and physical well-being.
The question for the doctor becomes when to “let go,” when to stop offering treatments that likely don’t work. The doctor asks: why submit the dying to the full panoply of medical procedures only to see them merely exist in institutions and lose their independence.
Some may recognize five stages through which dying loved ones seem to be passing through. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross defined them:
-Denial: “No, not me.” A typical response if one is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.
-Anger: “Why me?” God may be a target for anger especially if one is young. But it's ok, God can take it.
-Bargaining: “Yes me, but.” The patient bargains. I'll do this or that, God, if you lengthen my life.
-Depression: “Yes, me.” The person realizes he or she is not getting better; and there are regrets for things done or not done.
And finally, acceptance: “My time is running out but it’s all right.”
These stages are not absolute but can be a guide. And similar stages can apply to major life changes like job loss, divorce, the death of a loved one.
Dr. Kubler-Ross wrote another book titled “Death: The Final Stage of Growth.” The title segues into the Christian understanding of death. The foundation is Good Friday/Easter. The story of Jesus did not end in the tragedy of the cross but in the triumph of the Resurrection. Our faith challenges us to remember that the light of our resurrection will shatter the darkness of our own death. God will transform us into a new kind of spiritual embodiment.
Let’s be honest. Most of us do not long with St. Paul “to be free from this earthly life so that we can be with the Risen Christ.” But death is a fact of life.
We've heard often enough the motto “be prepared." The Beatitudes especially in Chapter 5 of Matthew can be our guide in making that motto our own. Here’s one paraphrase of the beatitudes:
“If you look for God in your daily life;
if you readily spend time listening to and consoling others who seek your guidance;
if you manage to heal wounds and build bridges among people;
if others see in you goodness, graciousness, joy, and serenity;
and if you can see the good in everyone and seek the good for everyone, blessed are you."
Pope Francis has urged young people—and it holds true for all of us: “Do not be like superficial sightseers…never discovering the meaning of the roads you take…be like Pilgrims, who immerse themselves fully in their daily encounters, listen to the messages these encounters communicate, and make them a part of their quest for happiness and fulfillment.” Amen.
