December 29.     Eternal Life.  Mrs Adams shared,   “These last years starting with the coronavirus, the other disasters that have hit us and the economic burdens we all have to carry  has made us more aware of our vulnerability and the possibility of death.  Fear and anxiety have been common experiences. “I know that we have not had a death in our immediate family, but the reality and possibility of death has certainly become part of life. I think it is a good thing. What do others think?”  

Canticle 10. PRAISE AND BLESS MY LORD, and give Him thanks and serve Him with great humility.   The book Care for Creation – a Franciscan spirituality continues to reflect on death and eternal life. “Francis’ praise of death is a return of love for love.   In his own way he tells us that the world is not blindly hurtling into extinction but is moved by Christ to Christ that God may be all in all.    What happened in the death of Jesus anticipated the future of humanity and the cosmos itself.   The death of Jesus was not the annihilation of creation but its radical transformation through the power of God’s life-giving Spirit.  Jesus’ resurrection is the beginning of the transformation of the world and this includes the world of nature.”   

This is the ultimate message of the Incarnation.  God created, was present and continues to be present in his love, throughout the life of Jesus, his resurrection and the final transformation of all creation as foretold in the gospels and the book of Revelation.  The human spirit surrenders its limited bodily structure and becomes open toward the universe and in some way a true brother and sister to the elements of the universe.  That is the essence of Franciscan spirituality which Don Scotus develops.  He maintains, like Francis, that relationship is the key to the beauty of the universe.   Since all reality is good, then my relationships with others, human and nonhuman, ought to promote goodness.  Care for Creation.  p92.

Death will be no more, mourning and crying and pain will be no more. Rev 21:4 Pope Francis.   Let us not waste energy by dwelling on the distant past.  The better we live on this earth the greater the happiness we will be able to share with our loved ones in heaven.  AL 258