We can die any time, so we should prepare for a good death
Photo: Yamin/cancaonova.com
“And meanwhile, you don’t know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a vapor that appears for a second and then fades “(James 4, 14).
Since I was a little boy, I was formed in the pedagogy of Don Bosco. In high school, every month, there was a penitential day called “Retreat of the good death”. It was impressive. We were still kids, and this was the proposal that was made: “Let’s get ready, as if we were going to die!” But how do you prepare to die?
We knew we could die at any time, so we prepared, each month, so that if we died, we were ready. Every month, the night before the day of the “Retreat of the good death,” began the confessions, which continued till 2:00 pm, then began the great cleaning, when each was tidying up his seat: the portfolio of study, his place in the bedroom, his closet. We thought as follows: “if I died, how I wish people would find my closet, my wallet, my stuff?” Of course, none of us would surprise people: “But he had this? This video? This tape? And these pills? This magazine? “.
We can find it strange, but this is a secret of Holiness! Our lives need to be austere, sober and humble. The secret is there: in any thing, it is necessary to accept and assume our smallness and poverty. We need to live with what is necessary and nothing more.
Your brother,
Monsignor Jonas Abib
Founder of the Canção Nova community