Next Sunday is the last Sunday of the liturgical year, the Feast of Christ the King, which makes today the last “green Sunday,” the final weekend during the ordinary time of the year.  I mentioned before that these last few Sundays of the year really draw our attention to last things of life, in particular, death, judgment, heaven, and hell.  We talked a bit last week about what heaven is all about.  And these vivid readings today draw our minds towards the fragile nature of our life on this earth and the trials and tribulations that will very likely accompany us, at least in some way and at some point during our lives and especially at the end. 

Faced with the fragility of the world and the relative shortness of life, it’s a universal human experience that each person in his own way has to come to some kind of terms with his own mortality.  It’s the so-called “existential crisis”: if I’m going to die eventually, then does anything really matter?  Very broadly speaking there are two immature approaches to this problem: they’re the solutions that adolescents come up with when they either get drunk for the first time or read a philosophy book or both, and think they’re very profound.  One is the “eat, drink, and be merry” approach: might as well just maximize my pleasure and enjoyment, and not really concern myself with moral behavior or making a difference or anything like that, unless it happens to be enjoyable to do so.  Just have a good time; don’t worry about it.  The other option is to find a way to reject the premise entirely: all of this earthly flesh stuff must all be just an illusion that we have to transcend, and sort of drift away from all these concerns to some complex plane of higher consciousness. 

We don’t do either of those things.  Our Christian Faith and specifically our Catholic outlook provide an incredibly nuanced and mature approach to the existential problem of suffering and mortality and death.  And the difference is, we take death seriously and accompany it by various preparations and prayers and sacraments and rituals, both for the dying person and for those who remain.  Unlike the mindsets which are basically dismissive of death, either by means of distraction or by philosophical gymnastics, we regard death as a reality and as a sacred experience.  Even though we will certainly have some reasonable and natural fear, even though it’s a painful experience, and even though we have a sometimes tragic sorrow at losing the company of those with whom we share this life, we’re still not afraid to look death squarely in the face.  It’s why the crucifix is front and center in our church and in our lives.  We don’t pretend that this is easy.  We don’t pretend that our Faith makes this easy.  We don’t pretend that death isn’t real, and isn’t really painful.  But when we look to the cross, we see some important truths: we see that suffering and death can have meaning.  We see that we’re not alone: even our immortal God found a way to experience this firsthand: he is with us­­­­­­.  And we see that these things are never the end of the story.  There is also resurrection. 

The Lord is calling us today to take these things seriously, to be deliberate and intentional in preparing ourselves, to be ready for any difficulties that might arise, and above all, to have Christian Hope: the Hope that the Lord is faithful to his promises, that he really does desire our salvation and will give us everything that we need to get there, and most of all that, although our time in this world is short and can be beset by all manner of trials and tribulations, eternity is real and it awaits us.  Life is changed, not ended.  And by our perseverance, we will live forever in God’s grace and love.