Today is one of those days when it just feels great to be alive. The sun is shining, the sky is a rich, radiant blue unsmirched by cloud or haze, and the air is fresh and crisp. There is still a bright, green, lively scent to it, since the splendid, kaleidoscopic decay autumn usually brings apparently is postponed by all the life-giving water we have received from the heavens over recent months. Walk outside; doesn’t it feel great to be alive?
It seems ages since we have had more than two nice days in a row; this glorious weather is predicted to last all week. But it’s certain that a nice spell that long will leave us wanting it to last even longer. When we have a good thing going, we tend to hope – even assume – that it could go on and on just that way, rather like your dog when you are scratching his ears. If you dare stop, he’ll look at you with an expression like you abandoned him in some desolate place: Wait, what – you stopped?
He thought it would go on forever.
We can be just like that dog when we are enjoying something. But unlike that dog, we should know enough not to let ourselves think the delight will last forever. The good weather, the clean house, the children all playing happily – we know it will NOT last. This distinguishes us from the beasts, and enables us to do two things.
We can be just like that dog when we are enjoying something. But unlike that dog, we should know enough not to let ourselves think the delight will last forever. The good weather, the clean house, the children all playing happily – we know it will NOT last. This distinguishes us from the beasts, and enables us to do two things.
The first thing we can do is rejoice in the goodness. Life, joy, contentment, beauty, peace, and intimacy with our loved ones are all goods whose goodness is defined, emphasized, and made better by their fleeting nature. Having been long without something good – as we are now with this great weather – enables us to rejoice and be grateful. Gratitude makes us aware of the source of the goodness, the Giver of every good gift, and brings us into right relationship with God. We can remember the goodness, and nurture the gratitude, even after the goodness ceases.
The second thing we can do is expect it to end, and prepare ourselves for that. Unlike our dogs, we aren’t bewildered by the change, because we never expect anything in this life to last forever.
These shimmering days of October glory are, like our maple trees of that name, indicators of change and symptoms of transition. The nature around us is heading into the killing frost and darkness of winter, a reminder to us that our lives in this world also will not last forever. This awareness of our own end is not a penalty to be avoided, but rather a blessing that separates us from the beasts, and allows us to do two things.
The first thing we can do is rejoice in the goodness. Life is made better by its fleeting nature, which also enables us be grateful. Gratitude makes us aware of the source of the goodness, the Giver of every good gift, and brings us into right relationship with God.
The second thing we can do is expect it to end, and prepare ourselves. Which is why every autumn, we do just that.
Wednesday evening, our children dress as ghosts and ghouls to mock-frighten one another and us, reminding us both how fearful death can be, and that we who live in Christ have grounds to laugh at it. Then on Thursday, the day of All Saints, we rejoice to call on all who have gone through death into the life that does last gloriously forever. And on Friday, the day of All Souls, we bring the names of all whose life with us in this world is ended, though our love for them has not died. We do the work of love, praying for them, that Jesus Christ, the Love that conquers death, bring them to the eternal glory of everlasting day in His presence.
All this talk of death is repellent to many, but that is often a symptom that they are deluding themselves that whatever they are now enjoying can and should last forever. How shocked they’ll be, like a dog when the petting stops!
Fall makes beautiful the end of summer’s bounty, and hope of spring makes winter bearable. Reminding ourselves of the fleeting nature of all that we enjoy in this life makes it possible for us to enjoy it all the more, be grateful to the One who gives it us, and prepare for it to end. Knowing that in Baptism we have already died with Christ and that this whole world is passing away makes every day a great day to be alive.
Monsignor Smith
