We Should Long to be with Christ

Is anyone ever truly ready to let go of this life?  Even St. Paul shares with us from his letter to the Philippians, “For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.   If I go on living in the flesh, that means fruitful labor for me.  And I do not know which I shall choose.  I am caught between the two.”  God has given us the instinct to live and rightly so, but He has also given us another desire, to be where He is, in His full presence, Heaven.

Yet, death is very difficult, for a number of reasons.  There is the unknown, for example, a child may have fear of riding a bike without training wheels for the first time and it may take some time before the child actually rides just a two wheeled bicycle.  There is a fear of the unknown, what does it feel like to ride the bike without training wheels, will I fall, will I crash, will I get hurt?  All are good questions.  Eventually the child musters the courage and takes a leap of faith and rides that bike for the first time without the training wheels.  And then what happens?  Now the child never wants to get off the bike, the experience has reinforced in the child’s mind that it can be done and there is knowledge of what it feels like.  The problem with death is that we cannot practice.  I can’t take the training wheels off and try it a couple of times, death is a onetime experience for just about all of us (exceptions, i.e. Lazarus).

Another difficulty is that we put so much stock in this life, again rightly so since God has given us a deep desire to live and survive less we all give up to easily in this life, but at the same time our vision needs to be on the prize.  God is described as a jealous God, not in the sense of weakness, but as a reminder that nothing in this world makes sense, has value, or is good without God and Him first, in all things.  We can love more fully, more purely, more divinely (so-to-speak) when our relationship with God always comes first.

Listen to how the 2^nd reading from St. Paul closes today, “I long to depart this life and be with Christ, for that is far better. Yet that I remain in the flesh is more necessary for your benefit.”  Do we have the same longing, “to be with Christ,” before all things?  There is a saying for priests, “Celebrate this mass as it would be your first mass, your last mass, your only mass.”  This saying can be modified for all of us, “Live today as it would be your first day, your last day, your only day.”  What would your priorities be if that was the case?  As Christians we would answer, “Christ would be our priority.”  If so then, remember to long for Him each and everyday because it may be the last day, it may be our only day.  Amen, FJ