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About The Series
Are you wondering how God fits into your everyday life? How
you can find your voice in your community and church? How you can get through another day
of loss and grief? How you can make a difference in the world? What ideas you can embrace
to nurture those in your family circle? How, in our diverse society, you can better appreciate
another culture’s way of expressing belief in God? How to deepen your prayer life?
What life experience and wisdom you can share with others?
If you are asking these thoughtful questions, the Called to Holiness series offers you
much insight and encouragement for making sense of God and how you and your faith fit into
the world—all from a woman’s perspective.
Covering such diverse topics as discovering the “theologian” inside yourself,
dealing with change and loss, nurturing families or combating the social injustice in your
community—and more, the eight Called to Holiness books will help you find God in
the midst of your everyday life while empowering you on your individual faith journey.
Each volume in the series is penned by a Catholic woman theologian or expert and provides
reading guides with discussion questions, rituals and applications to daily life as well
as suggestions for further exploration of the topic.
Whether reading the Called to Holiness books on your own or with a group, you will find,
in tangible ways, that your own life experiences reveal the sacred.
Initial funding for the Called to Holiness project was provided by Foundations and Donors Interested in Catholic Activities, Inc. (FADICA).
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The fragility of life and the “last four things”
“The death of a sibling hits home in a different way than the death of a parent, aunt or uncle, those loved ones of the older generation. Kitty is my generation.”
By Patricia Cooney Hathaway
Author, Weaving Faith and Experience: A Woman’s Perspective on the Middle Years My older sister, Kitty, died in February after losing a two-year battle with brain cancer. She is the first of my nine siblings to die. A young 68, Kitty made it very clear to all of our family that she wasn’t interested in meeting God or seeing our father and mother. She wanted to stay here with her husband, six daughters and her beloved grandchildren.
I appreciated Kitty’s honesty. She verbalized what many of us feel but would never admit.
The death of a sibling hits home in a different way than the death of a parent, aunt or uncle, those loved ones of the older generation. Kitty is my generation.
Her death prompted me to reflect anew on what our church describes as the “four last things.” Suddenly, these mysteries of our faith that I believe in but haven’t given much thought to recently have become quite significant.
Kitty’s death reminds me about the fragility of life. Consequently, I find myself asking: What do I really believe about the end of life? What do I really think about what the church describes as the “four last things”?
Death
Death is our final rite of passage. All of us want to go to heaven, yet none of us wants to die to get there! Jesus’ promise of a resurrected life encourages us to view death as a crossing over from a life in which we experience the joys and limitations of love to the fullness of God’s love without limit.
Yet, there is a sting and an anxiety about the finality of our lives in death. It involves our last and our most significant act of faith that God is a God of infinite compassion and forgiveness who will welcome us home.
Judgment
Saint John of the Cross reminds us, “In the twilight of life, God will not judge us on our earthly possessions and human successes, but on how well we have loved.” Such self-giving love is described in Matthew 25: “Come, you that are blessed by my Father...for I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink,.... I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these who are members of my family, you did it to me.”
A disconcerting question is who will do the judging? In the presence of love itself, will God judge us, or will we judge ourselves?
Hell
The Catechism of the Catholic Church tells us that hell is the state of definitive self-exclusion from communion with God and the blessed. Self-exclusion. It is not God’s decision but ours. We cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love God.
Unfortunately, there are individuals who choose a lifestyle so devoid of love that they literally create a “hell on earth” for themselves and others. That choice, without repentance, has eternal consequences.
Heaven
Heaven is God’s place—our ultimate home. It is the experience of the fullness of love without pain or limit. We have intimations of heaven here on earth: The taste of a double-scoop chocolate ice-cream cone is “just heavenly!” The delights of a warm, sunny day or a walk by the lake are experiences we want to “freeze in time.” The lingering over an intimate dinner with a loved one is something we wish “would never end.”
These are intimations of what is to come. Saint Paul confirms our deepest longings: “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).
Life everlasting
When I visited Kitty for the last time, she looked right into my eyes and said, “I am so thankful for the life I have had. I only wish I were here longer.”
I replied, “God undoubtedly wishes that for you as well.” She nodded her head in agreement. She believed that God had been with her all along helping her fight this insidious disease with courage and trusting faith.
In the end, Kitty’s body gave out. I believe God was right there as she took her last breath on earth, waiting to embrace her and lead her to life everlasting.
What do you believe about the “last four things”? Share your thoughts by clicking on Contact Us.
posted
Friday, August, 7, 2009
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Series Titles
Weaving Faith and Experience: A Woman's Perspective on the Middle Years
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