Fr. Don's Daily Reflection
Editor’s Note: A suggestion for a unique Christmas gift: Fr. Don Talafous’s new book, a collection of his reflections. They offer hope and encouragement. While they come from the mind, heart, and PC of a Catholic Benedictine, these reflections appeal to church-goers, skeptics, and even those of little if any relation to organized religion. Order here: Musings: A Benedictine on Christian Life
Psalm 39 is full of poetic expressions of the shortness of life:
“You have given me a short span of days;
my life is nothing in your sight.
A mere breath, the one who stood so firm;
a mere shadow, the one who passes by;
a mere breath, the hoarded riches – and who will take them, no one knows...
In your house I am a passing guest – a pilgrim, like all my forebears.”
The words, though they speak of the fragility of our life, still may have a bittersweet beauty for us. (The inevitability of decay adds urgency to our appreciation of spring and the beauty of autumn.) We see the same fleeting character of all creation evidenced in the cycles of nature, in flowers, in the seasons, in every form of beauty. We see it, more close to home, in the sudden and/or accidental death of a young person.
But, no matter how much we take the words or events to heart, it is still difficult for us to really believe in our own decay and death. Rarely do such words, no matter how frail our physical being, prevent us from planning a winter getaway, from buying a new suit or having the roof replaced. We can perhaps speak feelingly of our mortality and the shortness of life but to really imagine our own death seems almost impossible. A psychiatrist reports that he has rarely heard a patient say, “When I die;” more often it is, “If I die.” Perhaps the best we can do is attempt to be more aware of how fleeting life is and more gently conscious of that in those around us.