Dying doesn't have to be feared.

As the we edge toward the end of the liturgical year, the Scriptures invite us to reflect on the endtimes.  We need to value what both Mother Nature and the Church's Scriptures reveal to us in the final weeks of the liturgical year.

As the leaves have fallen from the trees and have died, as the days grow shorter and the hours of darkness increase, we are very much aware of the change of seasons and the cycle of life.  I don't know if Bette Midler was thinking about today's Scriptures, but she sings with much truth:  "That beneath the winter snow lies the seed that in the spring becomes the rose."

As the people of the Philippines seek to recover the destruction of the typhoon Haiyan, they too need to know the seed that lies beneath their devastation that in the spring will become a rose of new hope.

Stephen Covey in SEVEN HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE speaks of the wisdom habit: BEGIN WITH THE END IN MIND.  Getting to the basics, there are two realities we all share in common:  we are born, and we are going to die.  With every ending, there is the promise of a new beginning.

There is no need for us to begin the Christmas season immediately.  Frosty the Snowman and jolly old St. Nick can wait a bit longer.  We need to spend time being confronted and learn from the realization of the endtimes.  Dying doesn't have to be feared.

The late Archbishop of Chicago, Joseph Cardinal Bernardin, as he was dying with terminal cancer, wrote a little book entitled THE GIFT OF PEACE.  He lived beautifully and lovingly each day that was given to him in the presence of a healing God.  He possessed the God-given gift of peace.

His dying helped him to live.  Dying helped him to be aware of what is important in life.  Dying helped him to speak the love that was in his heart.  With the gift of peace, he knew he was soon going to share more fully in the mystery of God's life.

The best balance is to concentrate on the reality that we will  face our end and to keep in mind that how we live in this life is what matters.  The balanced answer is that the end begins now and we respond by living justly and righteously, knowing the end could arrive at any time.