TEMPUS FUGIT

By Terry Wenger

Death surrounds us. In our occupation and in our personal lives, we are constantly confronted with this reality. We strive to distance ourselves from it... This certainty... This absoluteness... This death we witness daily in our streets... But it is there... A constant reminder of our own mortality. The shortness of our own earthly existence.

Most of us have experienced the deep sorrow and pain associated with the loss of someone we love... An even stronger reminder... However, we still hide ourselves from this truth. We choose not to dwell too deeply on it. We suppress these feelings in a desperate attempt to escape from one unavoidable fact... We too must pass from this life.

I remember one day while driving to work. I heard a news broadcast describing the "Valu Jet" DC-9 crash in the Florida everglades. 109 passengers lost their lives that fateful day. Immediately following this was an update on a Pomona police officer who had been shot and killed. All so sudden... All so unexpected. I continued my drive glancing towards a large illuminated sign. In bright lights I read "Movie Channel let you down...Try ours!" Directly beneath this, in even brighter lights - "Test drive the new Spyder!"... I continued my drive.

Life rushes on.

I call to mind the day three dead bodies were found in a local motel room. Two men and a young woman. The young woman was discovered nude on the floor. She lay curled in a fetal position. The deadly chemical fumes emitted while manufacturing methamphetamine had overcome all three.

I try to imagine this young woman as a child. Playing innocently with her friends... Going to school... Maybe going to church... Her childish dreams of the future... Her first love... I wonder what caused this downward spiral? What led up to this final crushing defeat?... Her degrading death in this filthy motel room... Law enforcement and rescue personnel walking around her unclothed body... Photos being taken... Coroners case number assigned.

"Just another 'meth-head' getting what she deserved"... "White trash"... "No great loss."... Or is she also a child of God? ... A human being deserving of our compassion and respect even at this time.... Do we judge them even now? Our Blessed Lord teaches us mercy, forgiveness, and understanding. He continually shows this by His own example. Do we truly believe this? Do we recognize these principles in our own lives? Do we imitate Christ in our views concerning the sanctity of each individual life? Or is it all just interesting material for armchair theologians to discuss on Sundays?

How different would we feel had she been a member of our family? What if she were a long forgotten childhood friend?... A new perspective emerges... How our hearts would have broken. The anguish we would feel... What would we say to her mother?

I think about all the "routine" calls we handle. The rescues... The suicides... The senseless shooting deaths... Young and old... All dying... Suddenly and unexpectedly taken away... Gone! "Routine" for us. Unspeakable agony and heartache for others.

I recall the unforeseen discovery of a terminal illness in a friend. A former detective enjoying a well-deserved retirement. His exciting future had been mapped out. So many plans he had made... Everything was prepared... Oh, the life he and his beautiful wife would now lead... All this free time could now be spent together... All the time in the world!

But plans can drastically change.

The cancer was discovered after a simple checkup. This sudden blow had not been bargained for. Overnight the course had been drastically altered. His family and friends witnessed to the horror of this devastating disease.

Within a very short time this caring man had breathed his last. What a loss to all whose lives he had touched! He was now gone from this world.

Another tragedy... More sorrow... Lives changed overnight.

In these words I am attempting to express the intimacy of death and the absolute certainty of it for each one of us. We cannot escape death. And after death, our judgment. This reality has been described as "The Four Last Things"... "Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell"... And as one by one the minutes go by, we each hurry onward towards this final end.

How ready are we to enter into the next life? How many of us have deluded ourselves into believing we still had plenty of time? We are daily witnesses to the folly of this belief.... A teenager killed in a traffic collision. "Poor girl...She had so much life ahead of her."... A drive-by shooting ... an innocent bystander struck down. "Another day in L.A."... The industrial accident. "Poor guy...never saw it coming."... The train wreck. The airplane crash. The boating accident... Cancer. A.I.D.S. Heart failure. Every day another tragedy in a long line of tragic events. And although we sometimes feel sorrow for these individual victims, we remain certain that nothing of this magnitude could ever happen to us.

Our minds have become the great deceivers of our souls.

But the truth is, these things do happen. They will continue to happen. And they can and do happen to us. We must remain cognizant of this fact and realize that our own death may come at any time. Sometimes without any warning... Some of us may just be caught by surprise!

When that time comes, we will leave behind all of our pleasures and worldly possessions. All those material goods which meant so much to us. The boats... The jet skis... The new cars... All the overtime we spent working in order to pay for these... All gone.

What about our promotions we worked so hard for? What about our authority...our importance? All stripped from us... Gone... There will be others to take our place. Others will assume our position. We thought we had it all... But did we?

"Fool, this night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?" (Luke 12:20)

As you read this, at this very moment, many people are dying. Yet we hardly give this a passing thought. We are entirely too busy with our own hectic lives. We don't have time to pay much attention unless in some way we are directly affected. In the same way, when we die, the rest of humanity will continue right on without us. But for us, it will become our most important moment. When we were planning for everything, did we forget our eternity?

Or do we still hold to the thinking that our own death is so far away? ..... Why worry today?

At our time of judgment, how many of us will beg for just one more day in a frightened attempt to make up for our past? ... Why not use that day now while it is still ours?

Or do we convince ourselves that we are guaranteed more time? Are we truly guaranteed even one more hour?... One more minute? Do we believe because of our status here on earth that God owes us something? That we truly deserve that extra time? This becomes very presumptuous.

Why not take the time we now have to begin to prepare for our death? At this time when we can still rely on God's mercy. Why do we continue in our present sinfulness when forgiveness is so easily obtained in this life? Or do we instead prefer to gamble with our salvation, betting we will live another day, only to find ourselves suddenly standing before God and facing his strict justice? Do we really wish to continue playing these odds?... What will we say at that time?.. What words will we search for when we must give a complete account of our lives.

"For we must all appear before the Judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive good or evil, according to what he has done in the body." (2nd Cor 5:10)

Could one of Hell's torments be the constant reminder of the eternal happiness we had thrown away for temporal earthly pleasures?

Eternity for us can begin at any time. To quote Giovanni Cardinal Bona in the seventeenth century: "Do not live your life being afraid to die because you are not prepared. Rather live your life in anticipation of death, which will be your grand entrance into true happiness, true life, because you are ready for it, because you are prepared, because you have so lived that you are ready to go be with God!"

I am reminded of an old prayer that was written in the early eighteenth century. It is simply titled "A Universal Prayer". The ending is what is relevant here.

"Make me realize, O my God!, the nothingness of this world, the greatness of Heaven, the shortness of time, and the length of eternity. Grant that I may prepare for death; that I may fear your judgments, and in the end obtain Heaven, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen!"

In conclusion, I recall today's news broadcast... Another traffic collision... Six dead... Three children... Once again the "Thief in the Night" has paid an unexpected visit.

As a child, my Grandfather was fond of saying "Tempus Fugit". I knew it was Latin but never really understood it's meaning…It has now become crystal clear…

"Tempus Fugit - Memento Mori"... "Time Flies - Remember Death"