For those who may think its morbid to be so focused on the time before you die when you are in good health, I’ll be on to something else in a few days, so you can tune out for a week and then rejoin me. For the rest of you, I invite you to join me in exploring our vocation in the latter years of life.
As a way of probing beneath the surface, I want to ask you to consider this: Assume that you have died, let’s say at the age of 80. Now write ten sentences that you would like people to say about how you have lived those last ten years of your life. What we are attempting to probe is how to live those final years with integrity and meaning. I will offer you some statements from me, but I urge you to stepaside from what I write, and compose your own set of ten statements.
1. He learned not to strive so hard for the approval of others and to trust in the person that God had created.
2. His pace was slower but he sensed the holiness of each moment of life.
3. Friends knew he listened and cared for them.
4. He lived his passion for reconciliation across all that divided humanity.
5. His faith had a solid core and a continued openness to the cutting edge of new discovery.
6. His family always knew that he had plenty of time for them.
7. He continued to the end of his life to be open to the new while valuing the tradition and the roots of his faith.
8. He loved his wife deeply and was always awed by the depth that he discovered in her.
9. He looked for God’s presence in all circumstances.
10. He never abandoned life but he was not afraid of death.
So how do your ten statements compare with mine? What do you learn about your vocation from these statements?
