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

You've seen it for yourself or seen pictures of the brilliant beauty of fall in places like Maine or Minnesota. The mix of mild and comfortable weather with the breathtaking colors of changing leaves and blue skies strikes many of us as one of nature's most glorious accomplishments. "O world, thou art too beautiful this year" (Edna St. Vincent Millay). It's odd in a way that the dying of summer's green vegetation should be so spectacular and even thrilling to human beings.

Unless we humans are just unable to see it, it is hard to see anything comparable in the decay and pain of growing old. At least nothing that makes the heart skip a beat and produce exclamations of joy. This may be colored by my experience of 'maturing'. (However, a mother of a 12-year-old boy tells me that, trying to introduce him to a woman in her 80’s, she was upset that he seemed to be staring at the woman. Precociously perhaps, he said he was so taken with her beauty that he couldn’t speak!)

Trying to teach us something about the nature of resurrection, St. Paul reminds us "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies." (1 Cor 15). The mystery of death and life is central to our belief in Jesus. "And if the Spirit of God who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, the God who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you" (Rom 8:11).

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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