Do We Long For New Life Or Old Life? (March 8)

As the deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? Psalm 42: 1-2

Do we desire to be with Christ in the resurrection? It seems that most of us are not waiting for this new life but instead are doing everything possible to prolong our mortal lives. Still, as we grow more deeply into the spiritual life -- the life in communion with our risen Lord -- we gradually get in touch with our desire to move through the gates of death into eternal life with Christ. This is no death wish, but a desire for the fulfillment of all desires.

The knowledge that Jesus came to dress our mortal bodies with immortality must help us develop an inner desire to be born to a new, eternal life with him and encourage us to find ways to prepare for it ... The sacramental life and the life with the Word of God gradually make us ready to let go of our mortal bodies and receive the mantle of immortality.

Thus, death is not the enemy who puts an end to everything but the friend who takes us by the hand and leads us into the Kingdom of eternal love.

O Lord, help me to make union with you the desire that most deeply affects my daily life -- and my attitude towards death.

And from Thomas Merton...

Merton's Voice: Meadow larks singing in the snow, along the road from cow barns. Icy water of the running stream, full of sun, flowing over green watercress between banks of snow. Dark blue water of the lake, edged with melting ice and snow.

Merton, Thomas. Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander. New York: Image Books, 1989, p. 29.

Prayer: As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God?

(NRSV Ps 42: 1-2)