| The
Last 24 Hours
Fr.
George Smiga
May
8/9, 2004
John
13:31-33a,34-35
You
have probably heard this question before, but it's a question
worth meditating on regularly. What if you were told that
you had 24 hours to live? How would you spend those hours?
Would there be some place you feel you needed to go? What
would you do? Who would you do it with?
Looking
at life from this perspective, it is amazing how many things
that we think are necessary, how many fears that absorb our
time, suddenly seem trivial and unimportant. I think most
of us would clear our calendars and delete many marginal people
from our appointment books. We would try to surround ourselves
with the few precious people in our lives and engage in a
number of relatively simple things: crying, laughing, and
perhaps sharing a meal. But one thing would be clear. In those
final hours we would know what we would say. Because in those
circumstances there is only one thing to say which makes any
sense.
This
can be documented by the events of 9/ll. During those terrible
hours many people who were on the fatal hijacked airplane
or who were isolated in the upper floors of the World Trade
Center had cell phones. They used them, and we have records
of those calls. The records that would break your heart. Nobody
with those cell phones chose to call their financial planner.
No one called the sports hotline to check on recent scores.
They all called the person that meant the most to them, and
they all said the same three words: “I love you.”
Now
why is it that those three words are the words that everyone
says in such circumstances? Certainly it is not a matter of
providing information. The people who received those calls
already knew that they were loved. No, those words were spoken
because in the presence of death we reach out intuitively
to what is most important in our lives. What is most important
thing are the relationships we have with the people who we
love. Somehow saying those words makes love present, makes
love tangible, gives us something to hold on to as life slips
away.
The
words “I love you” are a sacrament, if you will. They make
the spiritual present, the invisible real. In the last few
moments of life the only thing that matters is our connection
with others. When we face the reality of death, all we want
is love.
So
if this is the case, does it not make sense to take what is
most important and make it the foundation of our lives? This
is what Jesus does in today's gospel. In the last hours of
his life he gives his disciples a new commandment. They must
love one another. In order to show them how to live out that
commandment, Jesus, on the night before he died, gives us
two gifts: a meal and an example. The meal is the meal of
the Eucharist, the feast of love, the meal in which we celebrate
God's love for us and our love for one another. The example
is Jesus washing the feet of his disciples, the work of love,
the action of service to the people we care for. To be a disciple
of Jesus, then, is to be someone who knows the meaning of
the meal and the meaning of the example. A follower of Christ
knows how important it is to celebrate love and to work for
love.
How
do we celebrate love? We celebrate love by always appreciating
who are the key people in our lives, by not taking them for
granted, by regularly using the words “I love you” as a sacramental
moment, making present that which is so fundamental to our
lives.
How
do we work for love? By taking concrete steps to see that
our relationships continue and grow, by learning how to speak
the truth with the people that are connected to us, by listening
to them, by saying “I'm sorry,” by asking “What do you need?”
and then trying to make it real.
If
we are going to be disciples of Jesus, if we are going to
follow the commandment of love, we must celebrate love and
work to deepen the relationships in our lives. A clear opportunity
for doing this is Mothers' Day which we celebrate this weekend.
We can use the relationship to our mothers as an example of
all the key relationships in our lives. If you are fortunate
to still have your mothers with you, do more for them today
than take them to brunch. Find a way to celebrate your love
for them, find your own personal way of saying the words “I
love you” so that it makes love real. Be willing to work for
love, to deepen that relationship with your mother. Ask her
what she needs. Listen. If necessary, say you are sorry.
The
good news, of course, is that most of us here today have more
than 24 hours to live. Hopefully we have many more years.
But how foolish would it be to postpone the action of love
until those final hours. Now is the time to celebrate the
love of those who are in our lives. Now is the time to work
to deepen and build those relationships. Today is the day
that we should love one another as Christ has loved us.
|
