I was driving home from work tonight and a car turned out in front of me. It really wasn't a big deal, he was turning left and I was turning right and there was more than enough time for me to slow down and let him go (which is what I did). But that made me think: what if he hit me? What if I got killed in a car accident on the way home on Christmas Eve? What if anybody died in a crash or for any other reasons this close to Christmas.
That would suck for my family (hopefully I'd be singing with the angels).
My point is, we all know stuff about death. We've probably known somebody who has died or is at death's door. We all know it's painful. Perhaps we've read Heaven is for Real or other such books and know something of near-death experiences. Perhaps we've learned about judgement and as much about Heaven, Hell, and Purgatory as we possibly can. But in the end, we do not know a lot about death. What is it like to die? Very few people can answer this question. But we still don't know until we experience death.
Still, we know more than Adam did. He'd never read those books... this was just a little bit before 2000. He wasn't bombarded by news media: the news was that he woke up and walked around a bush. He'd never had anybody he had known die at this point, he was the first person. Adam had absolutely no exposure to death.
Yet, according to Bl. John Paul II, Adam had an idea based on what he had. He had a body and a spirit, he was blessed with the gift of existence. JP2 says that Adam knew that when God said "if you eat of this tree you shall die," Adam at least associated "death" with "leaving his body".
It's amazing. We owe are very existence to God. Adam existed because of God, and this command probably helped him understand that. We owe life to God, and we owe death (aka hopefully even better life) to God. God. God. God. We really are nothing without him.
We need God. That's the bottom line. Every aspect of ourselves needs God. Haven't you noticed when we decide that we don't need God, everything seems to go wrong? In my personal life, the days when I decide not to pray are the worst. My best days are definitely when I have received the Eucharist, the body and blood and soul and divinity of my God, Jesus Christ. My worst days are when I wake up and don't think about him. And in society, we can see how a lot of our crumbling comes from denial of God, or God's plan. My example: greed. The American economy is so bad because people are greedy. The rich and the poor. Enough Americans want what they cannot afford or exploit people for the sake of having more. Thanks to greed we get violent crime, white collar crime, and a crappy job market.
Guys, we need God. Whether or not we know it, we need God! And that is what Christmas is all about. We need God, and so God gave us himself. We definitely cannot beat that as far as Christmas gifts go, but we can at least give God ourselves in return.
Dear Jesus, Happy Birthday! Thank you for coming to the world for my sake. Help me to continue to acknowledge you throughout the week and to realize how needy I truly am! Also, please comfort those who have lost a loved one recently. Please be with them, and give them the graces they need to not only keep going, but to have a Merry Christmas nevertheless. Amen
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