33rd Sunday in Ord. Time(C) Nov.18, 2007

33rd Sunday in Ord. Time (C)
Lk 21:5-19

Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, amassed a fortune manufacturing weapons of destruction, found himself dead one morning in1888. He read his own obituary in the newspaper. Actually, it was his brother who died, but a reporter mistakenly wrote Alfred’s obituary.

For the first time Alfred Nobel saw himself as the world saw him, “the dynamite king” and nothing more. He was simply described as a merchant of death, and he would be remembered for that alone.

Alfred was horrified. He reflected the true purpose of his life, of what living a life is all about. Alfred wrote his last will and left a fortune to establish the most valued of all prizes: The Nobel Peace Prize. This prize is awarded to individuals who made historic contributions in the promotion of peace, and those whose achievements benefited humanity.

The reality of death stuns us and even paralyzes many of us. The uncertainty of the future many times disturbs us. Like the people in the Gospel today. We are anxious to know what lies beyond tomorrow. The many fears that we keep, troubles us. We then ask: “what happens when we die”.

Death is a reality that we have to face. It will come to us sooner or later. But for a Christian, death gives us the awareness of our limitations… of how fragile life is! It leads us to a conclusion that we are not the owners of our existence. This has to be retuned to our sole Creator – to our God and Father.

The Gospel doesn’t want to make us morbid neither it intends to scare us, but it is presented that somehow and somewhere we have to confront the reality of death as we are ending the season of our church calendar. We too must be prepared for many times, death comes when we LEAST expect it. We must plan things, not to show us the future, but rather to uncover the things we must do today in order to have a better future.

When our time comes to answer the reality of death, how do we want to be remembered? Tomorrow bespeaks postponement. Good intentions must be translated to concrete actions TODAY. Today well-lived makes every tomorrow a vision of hope! Look well, therefore, to this day, for today only happens ONCE in our lifetime!