For three weeks in a row we are celebrating the funeral of a Sister, and some Sisters are under Hospice care, the vestibule to the next world. This is making me more conscious that my life too has an expiration date. It has also heightened my awareness of how precious my life is.

Each morning I wake up to find that my heart is still beating and my lungs are still breathing. I’m alive! I can say with St. Charles de Foucauld, “Lord, one more day to love you!” 

Living on Earth

You’ve probably seen photos from the Hubble telescope that show the galaxy Andromeda, the one closest to us. It makes you dizzy. There are billions of stars in it. Beyond that there are zillions of other galaxies. And here we are on tiny planet Earth, just a blue and green speck in the enormous universe, but Earth contains life. It’s a miracle.

Because you are alive, the world is your playground. You are free to explore earth and gaze at wonders like the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, and star-studded night skies. You can be astonished by exquisite flowers and enjoy animals like your cat or the giraffe at the zoo.

Your Precious Life

From all eternity God planned to create you. Then at a certain time and place, almighty God loved you into being. A certain woman and a certain man met and came together and gave you a set of genes unlike any other person’s. You are unique. And you are marvelous. Your eyes keep blinking to keep them lubricated. Right now your stomach is digesting your last meal. Put your hand over your heart. It beats more than 100,000 times a day, sending oxygen to cells to keep you alive. And all these things go on without your even thinking about them.

Because you have life, you can thrill to Chopin’s Preludes, run (or walk) with wind blowing through your hair, play pickleball, dance, swim, eat pizza, play the guitar, and read others’ thoughts in books or on Kindles. Because you have life, you can know the satisfaction of mastering algebra and French (well maybe) and learning how to cook and to build a house. You can create things: a new recipe, a song, a computer program, or art. You can imagine, remember, solve problems, and make decisions.

You also have spiritual life and the divine life we call grace. This makes you godlike. You are God’s child with a destiny of living forever completely happy.

Be Loved and Love

What is life’s greatest blessing? Love—the whole spectrum of it. You can know the incredible love of almighty God who not only made you but saved you. You also might experience the love of parents, children, family, and friends. You can also experience the intoxicating joy of being loved by a certain someone. In addition, you are able to love others in return.

How to Use Life

Incredibly God gave us tremendous power over these wonderful lives of ours. We can live them fully. St. Irenaeus pointed out that the glory of God is a human being fully alive. This means using all of our talents and all of our days to the utmost. We can re-gift our lives by turning them into a present to God. As Saint Mother Teresa urged, “Make your lives something beautiful for God.”

On the other hand, we also have power to waste our lives, ruin them, and even destroy them. Doing this is like laughing in our Creator’s face.

Promoting Life

Our Lord Jesus Christ said he came that we might have life and have it abundantly. He passed his baton to his followers, us. If you are baptized, you are called to carry on the mission of Jesus, to bring others life, abundant life. You are called to see that people’s lives are not snuffed out before they leave the womb, that refugees have a safe place to live, that the homeless find food and shelter, that the imprisoned are humanely treated, that the elderly are respected and cared for, and that all people, no matter what their race, religion, or sex, are treated equally.

“Live” spelled backwards spells “evil.”  When we do not promote life, our own and others’ lives, we promote evil. If we are not life bringers, then we are death dealers. We spoil God’s creation that he made very good. Promoting life is a form of loving. Isn’t that Jesus’s commandment? “Love one another as I have loved you.” Protecting and nurturing life, loving, is being holy, being like God, because God is love.

Nurturing Life

• First, in order to live fully learn something new. Tap a hidden talent: take up crocheting, learn how to play the tuba, teach yourself Chinese.
• Second, foster life in others in some way. Help in a soup kitchen, participate in a protest march, or just smile at someone.
• Third, plug into the source of all life, God, through prayer. Increase your prayer time by at least five minutes a day. Let God speak to you through his word in Scripture, pray a set prayer like a decade of the Rosary, or just rest in God’s presence.

Your life is in your hands. So what will you do with your one wild and precious life? The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus, the counselor dwelling within you, will help you make the right decisions.

What three things do you cherish about your life?

Here is the song “Circle of Life” from the movie “The Lion King.” Put the captions on so you can better reflect on the words: