Sunday, November 13, 2011

Preparation

Therefore, let us not sleep as the rest do, but let us stay alert and sober.

Paul's words today remind me of a homily I heard the other day about death and heaven.

The priest talked about our fear of death and asked for perspective.

Our lives here on Earth are gifts, of course.  But this world is full of pain, sorrow, and sin.   

Heaven, on the other hand, is perfection.  It is love.  It is beautiful.  It is Paradise.

And yet most of us have one foot, if not both feet, planted firmly here.  Worrying.  Scared of leaving.  Afraid of death.

Why?

Because we are human, yes.  But mainly because deep down we know we have not followed Paul's reminder to its fullest.   

We prepare for presentations at work.  We prepare our meals for the week.  We spend countless hours preparing for parties and celebrations.

But we are often remiss when it comes to being fully prepared for our Lord.  We are half sleeping. Otherwise we would all be talking about how we couldn't wait to move on.

I paraphrased most of that, of course.  The priest was much more eloquent.  

I just wish it didn't feel like he was looking at me the whole time he spoke ...


God Bless.
  

4 comments:

none said...

Thanks for this kind wake up call! I saw a lot of my own tendencies in this post. Smiling now at the thought of Paradise with Jesus.

Victor S E Moubarak said...

This is a very good post. Well done and thank you Michael.

Yes, we tend to concentrate more on the things of this earth than those in Heaven above. We sometimes get our focus all wrong!

God bless.

Mary N. said...

Once again, you are right on the mark with this post. Just one question:
Are you sure the priest wasn't staring at me?
Lol!

Anonymous said...

Very true Michael. For some reason we all hang on to life and think we will live forever. We need to do what we can now to be prepared. Thank you. I hope you are having a great week!