ALL SOULS’ DAY

This morning, we had frost on the pumpkin. I took Mango, my wonder dog, out for a walk, and the grass was white with the first evidence that winter will soon be upon us. In just a few weeks, we’ll be starting the new liturgical season. Advent will be upon us sooner than we think.

And while the trees are still beautiful with fall foliage colors, we know that eventually, all those orange and red leaves will die, fall to the ground, and nature will be going to sleep. In a way, all those trees have to die before it can resurrect to new life next spring.

As the temperatures fall, it is important for us all to consider that we too, someday, maybe soon, maybe not-so-soon, will also have to do what the trees are doing: fall asleep, and appear to be dead. That will happen at the end of our lives. Sure, it will look pretty final, with our bodies buried in coffins under the ground and a headstone marking our place. But we know that all those maples and oaks are only dormant, sleeping until conditions are right for them to ‘live again.’

Now, a fool might look at an oak sitting in the woods in the middle of winter and say, that tree is dead. Look at it, no leaves. Let’s burn it up for firewood, it’s useless. And we’d laugh and say, ‘Wait till next spring.’ And our misinformed friend would surely think it was us who are the crazy ones, not him.

So too it is with our faith. Look around you, what do you see? Millions and millions of people living for just today, just for the moment, because they are like that person in the middle of the woods in the winter thinking that the sleeping tree is dead. They think that once the winter hits them, by which I mean the death of their bodies, then that’s all there is, and their life is over. But, we as Catholics know better. As the Lord reminds us, you judge a tree by its fruits, and next spring, if that oak tree fails to grow new leaves, then and only then do you chop it down and burn it for firewood. God does this with us with all the chances he gives us to reform and repent. He helps us to keep ‘green’ and vibrant as we journey through life through the graces he bestows. His grace is like the spring warmth which makes the sap flow.

We’re not all that different. There are the fatalists, who, convinced that their lives are extinguished at the moment of bodily death, make the same mistake the guy in the woods did when he chopped down the dormant but living tree. They live fast lives, speeding through life, sinning without remorse, trying to cram in more and more stuff because they’re convinced that death is THE END.

How do you live your life? Is it apparent to those you encounter each day that you BELIEVE in the RESURRECTION? Do you teach your children that priority number ONE is the salvation of their souls, and that those souls live forever? Do you ever fall into the trap of thinking that this life is all there is so you’d better live it fast and pleasurably, because tomorrow you might die? As the new season approaches, with the trees about to go dormant, think of the person in the woods who chopped down a vibrant life in its prime, because he was a blind fool, and resolve to be wiser.