Psalm 62: “In you alone is my soul at rest. My help comes from you.”

The writer and illustrator (Where the Wild Things Are) Maurice Sendak was interviewed a year before his death in 2012. At the time he was in his early 80s. He spoke with emotion and candor about the sadness of seeing friends die before him; he said "I cry often." In passing he said he had no belief in afterlife, but a moment later said he still hoped to see his brother again. He went on: "I am in love with the world.... So many beautiful things I will have to leave." He ended with: "Live your life, live your life, live your life."

We believe that death sends us back into the hands of the loving God who brought us into being in the first place. Still, that faith and trust compete with "love for the world." And, too, there is a struggle to make that trust felt more, more visceral than cerebral. As with Sendak we feel there are so many beautiful things which we will have to leave.... E.g., “Friends, music, theater, reading, the changing seasons, dinner with friends, cheese, wine, chocolate, laughter and humor, beauty in people, big cities and solitude, travel, football, languages, people watching, sunrises and poetry, two-year-olds....”

At my age, surely not far from death, I try to act on the belief that the best preparation is generous, loving use of the present, of time and of opportunities. With Sendak: “Live your life.” Live the present wholeheartedly. With appreciation for all that is, all I enjoy.... Visiting people in hospitals, for instance, the 64-year-old woman who simultaneously has liver and heart problems, diabetes, breathing difficulties, an infection in the leg, I realize how quickly life can change. Live life, live it now with generosity, hope, gentleness and joy.

Psalm 27: “I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness / in the land of the living.
Wait for the Lord; be strong; / be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord!”

Reply to Fr. Don at: DTalafous@csbsju.edu

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