Luke 12:16-21

From the moment of our birth, we begin a journey through this life
which inevitably leads to our death. There is no escaping that fact that
it is appointed to all men once to die. It is also true that no man
truly knows the day and hour of his own death for it can come at any
moment. Oh yes, we all believe that we will live to see tomorrow, or
next year, or even the next 50 years, but it is not certain. Our lives
will end, but we do not know when or where this will occur. Most people
respond to this uncertainty with simple denial – it just won’t happen to
me. Most people never think of their own death, and in fact, it is a
breach of polite manners to even bring up the subject of death. Death,
especially our own death, is something that we prefer to tuck away out
of sight in a place where we won’t have to think about it.

The rich man of the parable was just this sort of person. It never
occurred to him that his life would end. He was oblivious to the
possibility that he might die and so gathered his harvest which he
planned to enjoy for “many years”. Because he did not consider the
possibility of his own death, he was a fool, for indeed in that moment,
his life suddenly ended and it was no longer his earthly wealth that
mattered, but his spiritual wealth (or lack thereof). He had wasted his
life in the acquisition of worldly possessions to address the many
possibilities of his life without making provision for the one certainty
– that he would one day die.

The Fathers of the Church all speak of the benefits of being mindful of
one’s own mortality and death. This does not mean that we should all go
around somber and humorless, always afraid that we will drop dead in the
next moment, but it does mean that the possibility of our own death is
always a factor in our choices about how to live. When we are aware of
our own mortality, the context of our lives changes. It is easy to think
that we are immortal, that we will not die or that if we do die, it will
be in the distant future. This lack of awareness of our death encourages
three tendencies in our lives which are detrimental not only to our
spiritual lives, but also to many aspects of our earthly lives. These
three tendencies are procrastination, vulnerability to temptation and
living in the future. These are all the result of thinking that we have
“plenty of time” and when we think that we are “immortal”, then we
consider that there is always “plenty of time”.

Procrastination comes about when we think there is “plenty of time” to
accomplish a task and so choose to do something frivolous over that
which is necessary. In the context of the spiritual life, this often
means that we put off doing those things which will help us to draw
nearer to Jesus Christ and instead do those things which are pleasurable
to our fallen nature. Therefore, we might watch TV or surf the internet
rather than take time out for our prayer rule – because we can always
pray later. We don’t read the scripture or other spiritual things
because there is always something else to read or some other activity to
take up our time. Or perhaps we will pass by a beggar without a thought,
thinking that we can catch them “next time”. We can skip the divine
services on Saturday night because there’s always Sunday morning – or
there’s always next week, or maybe there are too many other things that
“need” to get done. There is always “more time” to catch up on those
things that we need to do for our spiritual benefit because, well, it
doesn’t really affect me right now – it won’t be important until after I
die, and I’m not going to die for a long long time. All this comes about
because we forget our mortality and lose sight of our own death. To
recall one’s own death adds urgency to the thought of acquiring the
grace of God and developing one’s own spiritual life.

When we are not mindful of our own death, sin becomes more palatable
because there is always the possibility of repentance. “Why not sin now,
I can always repent later” we think, and that suggestion weakens our
resolve to resist temptation. The idea that repentance is always
possible later is born directly from a lack of awareness that “later”
might not always come. When we are mindful of our own death, it brings a
certain urgency to living a righteous life now (not later) and that if
we sin we might not always have the opportunity to repent. Compounding
this is the erroneous idea that repentance is somehow “magic” and takes
effect instantaneously. Repentance is more than this, for while it
begins at a moment in time, it goes on continually after that moment.
Sin is not just “breaking a rule”, it has consequences which cause
injury to the soul. Just as “breaking” the “law of gravity” will result
in injuries to the body (bumps, bruises, even broken bones) so also sin
results in injuries to the soul. Just as bodily injuries take time to
heal, so also the soul requires time and care to heal from the injuries
of sin. Regretting our sin and being sorry are only the beginning of
repentance which is a continual turning away from that sinful behavior
and thought. Even if we begin the process of repentance instantly, there
may not be sufficient time to heal completely from the injury we have
inflicted upon our own selves. Without the awareness of our own death
and the resulting limitation on our time, there always seems to be
“plenty of time” and “later” and so the urgency of resisting temptation
is lessened and we fall into sin more easily.

One final effect of a lack of awareness of our own death is that of
living in the future. By constantly living for tomorrow, we forget
today. By constantly worrying about what might happen “later” we lose
sight of what is happening “now”. When we live in the future, we are not
living our lives, but rather we live in a fantasy of our own creation.
And the future we create never quite matches up to reality that we live
and so to live in the future is fraught with frustration and
disappointment in the present. Our Lord Jesus Christ told us not to be
concerned for tomorrow for tomorrow will care for itself. Our concern is
to live the life that God gives us today. If we are always waiting for
tomorrow, we miss the challenges, the opportunities, the blessings of
today. When we bring in the awareness of death to the context of our
lives, then today becomes important and tomorrow fades into nothing more
than possibilities that may or may not even come to pass. To live each
day as though it were our last brings out the urgency and imminence of
the events of each day and the necessity to use each of those events for
our own spiritual benefit. Living in this way makes it easier to live
each day for the glory of God and brings us step by step and moment by
moment nearer to Christ.

The rich man of this parable was called a fool because he had forgotten
to consider his own death and wasted his time on gathering things that
were only of worldly value. While he might have been rich in this life,
he was impoverished in eternity. He had wasted all that God had given to
him gathering that which was inconsequential, that which was without
value and that which lacked any eternal importance. If we forget our own
death and trust in having “plenty of time” to accomplish those things
which are of eternal benefit and value or if we think that there is
always time to sin now and repent “later” we are fools. If we live in
the fantasy of the future and ignore the reality of today disregarding
the life that God provides for us here and now, then we are fools and
will only end up frustrated and depressed because our fantasy does not
match up with reality.

Let us therefore keep an awareness of our own mortality and death, not
so that we might be always somber and sad, but rather that we might
experience the joy that God gives to us here and now and not miss the
opportunities that He puts before us every moment of every day. The
remembrance of death is a tool recommended to us by the saints to help
us in our spiritual lives. The remembrance of death is the remembrance
that one day we will stand before God and that we are destined to either
live in the joy union and communion with Him or to be forever deprived
of that joy. Let us not be fools, but be wise and prepare for the moment
when we shall see God face to face.

--
Archpriest David Moser
St Seraphim of Sarov Orthodox Church (ROCOR)
Homilies: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/propoved/
Website: http://stseraphimboise.org