Daily Mass Readings 09/25/2014 or When it's Fourth and Long are You Going for the End Zone or are You Just Gonna Punt?

"Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth,
vanity of vanities! All things are vanity!
What profit has man from all the labor
which he toils at under the sun?
One generation passes and another comes,
but the world forever stays." -Eccl. 1:2-4

09/25/2014 Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week of Ordinary Time

Guess what. Someday, you are going to die. Not exactly an uplifting message is it? But it's true. You are going to die and I am going to die, someday.  As Catholics, we are reminded of it every year on Ash Wednesday. As the priest, deacon or extraordinary minister traces the cross on our heads they remind us, "Remember you are dust and to dust you will return."

This message should not surprise us. However, we don't often think of it. As we are driving into work or sitting through that boring meeting or watching the clock until it's time to leave, or sitting in front of the television, we are preoccupied with the minutia of our lives. But all of those things won't amount to anything on the day after we're gone. You can't take money with you. Someone else will replace you at work. The world will go on, almost without missing a beat.

But for as much as we are replaceable at work, there are people who would always have a hole where you were in their heart. For them, we are irreplaceable. But how often do we take them for granted? How many times do we talk to them without the courtesy we would even give a stranger on the street? We have so few days to just love and cherish them, we need to be mindful and do that.

 And for all the money you can't take with you, you will take your eternal soul. But how often do we think of what will become of that? As sure as you will die, you will also be judged. "Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return." What would become of your soul if that was today? Isn't your landing place for eternity more important than what's for dinner? Isn't it a bit more crucial than why the Patriots aren't scoring more points this year? But how much more time do we devote to those questions than what our relationship with Christ is like or what will happen when we stand before the throne of judgement?

Someday, every one of us is going to die, and to paraphrase Fr. Larry Richards, you can be a saint or you can go to Hell.

Now get out there and have a great day!

God Bless,
P.D.O.