“As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; for the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more. But the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting to those who fear Him, and His righteousness to His children’s children” (Psalm 103:15)
God and humanity—eternity and transience. One lifetime is all you get, so enjoy it while it lasts. That is reality, but it is not the whole truth—not all we get, because God planned more for us. He wants us to share life eternal with Him. Modern society’s attitude is to consider death as finality, and they call it wisdom—or maybe enlightenment—and Christian hope a delusion. However, to be one of us, or better put, one of His, that is, Jesus Christ’s, is to “look for the resurrection of the dead and life everlasting.”
I shall not leave too long a trace
In people’s painless memory
This ghost of life is hollow, false
And vague. What good is it for me….
But here on earth while my flesh
Can still alive and breathing be,
I have but one concern and care;
That God will never forget me.
Memory and Eternity, Zinaida N. Hippius
We call on the priest for a blessing when we are born, when we are buried, and at all events in between. Christ uses him as His channel of grace in order to direct our life on earth towards His Father’s Kingdom. All that takes place is aimed towards eternity. His presence is intended to remind the people of God that no earthly sadness lasts forever; however, neither do our moments of happiness. Not by accident was the earliest name that the Church gave itself, “The Way.” It means the true path to salvation, the road to God’s Kingdom that our Lord Jesus told us is narrow and covered by all sorts of impediments to our progress; nevertheless, there is another definition—the Way is also One Way, and there are Way stations along the route, but it has no terminal point. We go on the journey of life behind the One who called disciples to “Follow Me.”
Moreover, what should be the attitude for the followers? “In the fear of God, with faith and love, draw near,” we hear as we approach Christ in the form of bread and wine transformed by some inconceivable mystery into Christ’s Body and Blood. This offers us strength, encouragement and spiritual nourishment along the way to the end that is no end but the beginning of a new and glorious transition into the next phase of our journey—into life everlasting.
The renowned poet understood the significance of that transition. She felt that whatever memory she leaves behind among family, friends and readers of her words, it will not last for long; but it does not really matter in the end. “I have but one concern and care; That God will never forget me.” There is a certain contradiction—how could God Who knows everything not only on earth but also in the entire cosmos forget her? She cares little whether she leaves an anthology of long-remembered poems. She is asking that the Almighty answer the last words of the priest who will bury her: “Let her memory be eternal.” The past is a “ghost, life is hollow, false and vague.” The psalmist put it so well: We are like the flowers that last but a few weeks, until “the wind passes over it and it is gone, and its place knows it no more.” Her earthly memory captured in photographs, on her tomb-stone or in volumes of poetry…all that will pass. The entire world’s history will one day be extinguished. Only the Kingdom of God is eternal.