I am no Latin scholar, but a good friend shared this motto with me, and it so spoke to me, as it did to him. It says: "Rising I die; Dying I rise".
This short line says so much. It is mystical, capturing a mystery of life. Mystery is becoming more and more a key theme in my life. It tells me that I do not have to explain everything. This is not an excuse for an escape into the world of the irrational. Rather we live with mystery and allow it to speak to us.
This line is so powerful for me during the time of a pandemic and as we approach the end of another year. Yesterday's gospel at mass had an underlying theme of be ever watchful; don't sleep through life. Life is too precious and too short to miss. As Mark in his gospel keeps emphasizing, we are ever on the journey of life. We keep failing; so often not getting what life is really about, but still we keep going in the direction, shown by our faith in Christ crucified.
Failure, poverty, suffering become the great humanizer, the great leveller of humanity on the way. The problem is we too often lack the ability to listen, to see and to act, for maybe we are too sleepy, too fearful or just don't care. Let us heed the cry of a woman in Fiji, as she spoke out about the dilemma of climate change.
"Let us not be a generation of people who are evr hearing, but never understanding; ever seeing, but not perceiving. Let us not be callous in heart and close our eyes and ears to the violence against God's creation."
" As Mark in his gospel keeps emphasizing, we are ever on the journey of life."
ReplyDeleteOh, but the trials and tribulations. But, then, there is joy and satisfaction. One cannot get carried away. One needs to know when to let go too. Sometimes very difficult.