Am I Ready? 

   “I must one day die.” (St. Alphonsus Liguori 

   St. Liquor's statement would probably get the response common in our language today, “Well, DUH!”  But I’m willing to bet that most people reading this rarely, if ever, consider the fact that their life will end someday. 

   We all make plans far into the future for our earthly well-being.  We strive to be successful in our professional endeavors, to have a happy, loving marriage, and to raise our children in the light of God’s truth.  Well, at least those who believe in God do these things.

   Others, who do not have God in their lives, also plan for many things, but often for far different reasons.  Their goal is more likely to get as much as they can, to live for self and self-aggrandizement.  Their belief is that he who dies with the most toys wins.  They never stop to consider what happens next; they don’t believe there is a “next.”

   But even those who have faith in God are very reticent to consider their own death.  I used to be the same, but I’ve come to understand that the end of my earthly life is unavoidable and how well I prepare myself for that day is the most important planning that I will ever do.  It doesn’t matter how many “toys” I have, only whether I will leave this world in the friendship of my Lord.

   In his rule for the monastic life St. Benedict tells his monks and by extension, his oblates; “Consider each day your mortality.”  This doesn’t mean we should sit around dreading it and become depressed and despondent.  It simply emphasizes the fact that death will come at a time we do not know.  All the worldly preparations will not matter then, only how well we have prepared our soul for that final journey.