Thinking about death

Live each day as if it were your last.

That's a slogan as likely to appear on an inspirational calendar as it is in anything connected with Christianity. But the idea is one that is rooted in Scripture. "The end of all things is near," Peter instructs us (1 Peter 4:7). We know that the eschaton is upon us, for, as the Apostle Paul teaches, "The present form of this world is passing away" (1 Corinthians 7:31).

Our youth-obsessed culture doesn't help us be very honest with this fact, though. We do everything we can to escape death - from avoiding the topic in conversation to avoiding the reality by separating it from regular daily life.

And yet, for all of us death is very close. "Life is but a passing shadow," Shakespeare wrote. We would all gain a clearer focus about the things of most importance if we would be clear about the brevity of life.

I say all that as a way to introduce another section of Thomas a Kempis' Imitation of Christ, which I wrote about a few days ago. Kempis offers powerful counsel about death in Book I.23:

"Very soon your life here will end ... Therefore, in every deed and every thought, acts as though you were to die this very day. If you had a good conscience you would not fear death very much. It is better to avoid sin than to fear death. If you are not prepared today, how will you be prepared tomorrow? Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow?"

"Blessed is he who keeps the moment of death ever before his eyes and prepares for it everyday."

"The present time is very precious; these are the days of salvation; now is the acceptable time. How sad that you do not spend the time in which you might purchase everlasting life in a better way. Time will come when you will want just one day, just one hour in which to make amends, and do you now whether you will obtain it?"

"Learn to die to the world now, that then you may begin to live with Christ. Learn to spurn all things now, that then you may freely go to Him. Chastise your body in penance now, that then you may have the confidence born of certainty."

A key to appreciating such passages, I think, is for us to stop seeing the contemplation of death as a morbid activity and instead to see it as a way to properly orient the lives with which God has blessed us in these days.