THE TRAP OF IMAGINED IMMORTALITY
A
son went to his father and asked, “When is the best time to pray?” The
father responded,” The best time to pray is when the end of your life is
near.” The son protested, “But no one knows when the end is going to
be!” The father continued, “That’s my point. Since no one knows the end,
the best time to pray is every day.”
King Belshazzar succeeded his father, Nebuchadnezzar. We find him today
drunk, figuratively and literally, in the perks of the kingship. Bored
with the usual manner of partying with his cohorts, he ordered, in his
drunken frenzy, that the sacred vessels that his father had taken from
the temple of Jerusalem be brought out, so that he and his guests could
drink wine in them. Suddenly, a writing on the wall appeared, tracing
the words MENE, TEKEL and PERES.
Terrified, the king called for Daniel to reveal the meaning of the
words. The interpretation was chilling. MENE — God has numbered your
kingdom and put an end to it; TEKEL — you have been weighed on the
scales and found wanting; PERES — your kingdom has been divided and
given to the Medes and Persians.
Since biblical times, irresponsibility has been the child of imagined
immortality. King Belshazzar thought his kingdom would be forever. And
so, instead of dispensing his kingly power to empower his subjects and
bring them to knowledge of the true God, he used the throne as a
personal playground.
When we forget that there is an end to everything, we become lazy and
prone to loose living. Conversely, when we remember that everything
under the sun is given to us on borrowed time, we become more attentive,
caring and responsible.
What is to deliver us from this trap of imagined immortality? The
wisdom of St. Bonaventure is an invaluable guide. He said, “To lead a
good life, man should imagine himself always at the hour of death.” Fr. Joel Jason
REFLECTION QUESTION: Do you treat everything, everyone and every moment with conscious preciousness?
Let me treasure every moment, O Lord, for I shall pass this world only once. Amen.
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