From the Heart of the Shepherd

From the bulletin for The Feast of the Dedication of the Lateran Basilica in Rome (2025 November 09)

Nov 9: Dedication of SJL

In the Office of Readings of the day on which I write (Thursday the 6th), the Psalms contains two passages that echo one another: 

Remember, Lord, the shortness of my life

and how frail you have made the sons of men.

What man can live and never see death?

Who can save himself from the grasp of the grave? (Ps 89:48-49)

Our life is over like a sigh.

Our span is seventy years

or eighty for those who are strong.

And most of these are emptiness and pain.

They pass swiftly and we are gone.

Who understands the power of your anger

and fears the strength of your fury?

Make us know the shortness of our life

that we may gain wisdom of heart. (Ps 90:10-12)

As we strive this year to be “Living for the Day of the Lord,” we would be remiss not to remember, especially in this month of November, that “that day will assault everyone who lives on the face of the earth” (Lk 21:35). Yes, there is a real way in which we Christians are called to be living for the day of our dying. 

That is the day our Master comes and calls us to account for how we have employed His talents, and the fruitfulness thereof (cf. Mt 25:19).

That is the day that the Just Judge is revealed and will reward “all those who have longed for His appearing” (2 Tim 4:8).

That’s the day Bridegroom returns, on which those–and only those–whom He finds with lighted lamps are invited into the feast (cf. Mt 25:10-11).

That is the day when, for us at least, the sun turns black, and the stars fall, and the sky itself is rolled is torn apart like a scroll (cf. Rev 6:12-14) and everything, even our bodies, passes away and we find our souls standing naked before the judgment seat of God, to receive the just desserts for our deeds in the flesh (cf. 2 Cor 5:10).

Last November we hosted a poorly-named “Death Seminar.” (Perhaps we styled it “End of Life Seminar,” but it amounts to the same.) Very few parishioners attended that series of talks on death, estate planning, and funeral preparation. A strong index, I think, of the stage in life of most of our parishioners, who are more focused on bringing new life into the world than passing out of it. Totally understandable. But all the same: “You do not know the day nor the hour; therefore I say, be vigilant!”  (Mt 25:13). Stay awake! Be ready! 

As the Psalm indicates, “wisdom of heart”  is imparted by a vivid awareness of the shortness of our life. “The fear of God” (the beginning of wisdom) has a focal point: our encounter with God at the end of our earthly life and the beginning of our eternity (location TBD). As the days speed by and the years pile on, are we growing in that awareness? Are we acquiring that wisdom? 

Last Sunday we remembered in a special way all those for whom “the Day” came before they had been perfected in the love of God and neighbor, and who are now “paying” for it (“until they pay the last penny!” cf. Mt 5:26). On this “octave” day of All Souls, it would be very fitting for each of us to reflect, if only for a moment, on the shortness of life, the inevitability of death, the strictness of the judgment that awaits, the length of eternity, the vanity of setting our hearts on any passing thing (or allowing them to be troubled by the same), and the unfathomable, unimaginable, inexhaustible delights that God is storing up for those who love Him and who live out that love by holding fast to His commands.

From the Heart of the Shepherd: The Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed