Called to Life

Good Friday of Our Lord’s Passion

It is Good Friday.  Jesus stares down death…spiritually significant death, that is.  Death that comes from sin.  Death that makes living, hell.

While I was writing a short paper for my History and Preaching class I came across this from Ambassador of Christ, In Memory of Walter J. Burghardt, S.J. by Leo J. Donovan, SJ: 

At the age of 78, Walter entered what he later called the most exciting period of his life.

Being saved from the fear, horror, and terror of death is the gift of the cross.  It is the gift that allows for a life like Walter’s…a living that never stops.  Just living into the next with fullness.  And there is NO naiveté. 

I want to be able to say at age 78 (or any age for that matter) that I am entering the most exciting period.  I think I know what “exciting” meant for Walter.  It had everything to do with a sense of gratitude for that which came before and a conviction that one’s history is the building block for the next.  Life is never quite done this side of eternal life. 

May I see and hear that voice that calls me to life in the next, over and over again.