Imagine yourself on your deathbed. Today is your last day on earth and as you look back on your life, stripped of all its external trappings and pettiness, what remains important? At the end, when your day to day striving for success or achievements no longer matter, what is left?
We hear about this all the time, successful businessmen who have every material thing they could want, but wish they had spent more time enjoying the love of family and friends.
Yesterday we celebrated All Saints Day, remembering all those who have gone before us that are now enjoying living in the presence of God. Today, All Souls Day, we remember all those who died in Christ’s friendship, our mothers, fathers, brothers, and sisters but had not yet reached spiritual maturity. We pray for their souls that they may be purged of any remaining stain of sin and be worthy to enter the Father’s house.
But it is also a time for us to contemplate the state of our own souls. If we were to die today, would we die peacefully and contented that we had lived as Jesus urged us to do? Have we lived glorious lives?
As Christians we cannot ignore that fact that we will all one day die, just as all those before us have. We keep a crucifix to remind us of our own mortality and the final disposition of our souls.
Remember that all flesh is mortal, all earthly glory is fleeting, remember death.
Pax Vobiscum
The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed