Chaplain’s Conference
Sacred Heart School – High School
October 29, 2019

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We are coming to the end of October and the beginning of November.

October was Respect Life month. We give thanks to God for the gift of life and we prayed for a greater respect for all human life from conception to natural death.

November is the month of the dead. During November, we are called to remember and to pray for our brothers and sisters who have fallen asleep in the hope of the resurrection.[i]

In November, you will see in the Church a book of remembrance. The Book of Remembrance contains the names of those from our community who have died in the last year.  It also has a space for you to write the names of loved ones – friends and family members – who have died and whom you would like to be remembered in prayer.

Last Thursday, a man named Terry called his brother Tom at 4:30 PM to make plans for deer camp. At 5:15 PM, Terry told his wife Lynette he was going to drive into town to pick up some subs for dinner.

At 6:30 PM, Lynette and Tom received phone calls from the police department. Terry had had a massive heart attack while driving and his vehicle ended up in a ditch full of water.  He was being transported by ambulance to the hospital.

Terry did not return home. I am presiding at his funeral in an hour.

…

St. Benedict had a saying in his Rule. It was this:

Keep death daily before your eyes.

In other words, remember that one day you will die. Remember that every day and live for that day. Keep death daily before your eyes.

Doing so points our eyes to Heaven and makes us focus on what’s important.

On Thursday, Terry did not expect that his 4:30 PM phone call would be the last time he would speak with his brother in this life. He did not realize as he left home that that would be the last time his wife would see him on this side of eternity.

Would he have done anything differently had he known that?

What about you?

What if today was your last day?

What if today was your last day of school at Sacred Heart?
What if today was the last time you’d play a volleyball game with your teammates?
What if tonight was the last time you would sit down for dinner with your family?

What would you do differently? What would you say?

Keep death daily before your eyes.

If Jesus were to come today, would you be ready?

Are you living your life today so as to be ready for the day of your death? Or are you forsaking the glory of eternity for the glory of the moment?

Death is nothing to fear if we live for that day…if we live our lives keeping death daily before our eyes. Death is nothing to fear because Christ has conquered death.  The suffering of the cross leads to the glory of the resurrection.  Death is no longer the end.  It is the doorway to eternal life.

Do we live for that day?

Keep death daily before your eyes…otherwise we cannot glimpse Heaven properly and prepare our life here on earth to point there.

How do we prepare for that day?

In a word: gratitude.

Have you ever noticed that when ever the last thing rolls around, we remember the good times and always wish that we had a bit more time?

We go through our high school years, complaining about homework or assignments or meetings, and then suddenly we are in our last week of school during our senior year and our hearts long to spend a little more time with the community here.

We come to our last game of our high school career, and all of the pettiness falls away and we’re left with tears, tears of sadness that this chapter comes to a close but also tears of gratitude for the time and the memories we’ve been given.

We prepare to move out of the house and away to college, and suddenly our brothers and sisters don’t seem so annoying. In fact, we realize how much we love them and how much we’re going to miss them.

What if we could see that today?

What if we could slow down in the present and take time to appreciate the people that are in our lives today even as our lives are passing away like the scenery outside of the car window as we barrel down the highway during a trip across the country?

Keeping death daily before your eyes is not a morbid thing to do. No, keeping death daily before your eyes changes your way of seeing and cultivates gratitude in the heart.

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

At the end of November, we celebrate Thanksgiving.

What if you woke up tomorrow morning and the only things you had were those you thanked God for today?

Gratitude is the memory of the heart.

The word Eucharist means “thanksgiving”.

Every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we remember, with gratitude, what we so often forget. We remember the love with which Christ loved us.

A love that created us.
A love that surrounds us with friends, family, and a community who love us.
A love that died for us so that we might live forever, if only we live our lives for that day.

We have in our midst one who models gratitude:
the one whose soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord…
the one who carried “thanksgiving itself”, “eucharistia”, the Body of Christ, within her body…
the one who pointed to her Son and said do whatever he tells you…
our Blessed Mother, Mary, on whom we cast all of our cares. Let us pray for her intercession that both now and at the hour of our death, we may keep death daily before our eyes:

Hail Mary…

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[i] Eucharistic Prayer II