15 January, Wednesday — Living on earth with a foretaste of heaven

Wednesday of Week 1 in Ordinary Time

Heb 2:14-18
Mk 1:29-39

Christ too shared equally in it, so that by his death he could take away the power of the devil…and set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.

Just last week, someone from the disability community in Singapore passed away at a young age of 34 years old. I never got a chance to meet her in real life, but in her Facebook posts, she always seemed relatively healthy, well-fed, and active in her social circles. In her obituary, it was written that she “departed peacefully”.

I was shocked. She left so suddenly.

Together with our late Archbishop Nicholas Chia’s passing in late December last year, I was faced with the question of mortality.

I have always been an anxious person, and I get nervous when I face questions such as, “When will we die? How will we die? What happens after we die? Will we go to heaven or purgatory? Or we will go straight to hell?”

These are questions that many of us, including me, actively try to ignore. Just mention the topic of ‘death’ and we siam (Singlish for ‘avoid’) it immediately.

And so, we tell ourselves, “I won’t die so soon lah.” or “That’s just so morbid, why not enjoy life as it is right now?”

After reading today’s Gospel, I realise that I should not think of only repenting right before my life ends. It’s definitely tempting to do so, especially if I tell myself that I have many, many more days to live before that time comes. Perhaps that’s true, that I have many more days before I leave my earthly home.

But instead of living in fear of what is to come after our life, why not live as though we’re already in that life after our passing? Many times when I pray, especially to Our Lady, I can feel her motherly love towards me. And indeed, we have a foretaste of what heaven is on earth, because when we pray, Jesus and Our Lady are listening to us and answering our prayers, even if we can’t hear it.

So let us not live in fear of death, but let us live with a foretaste of the life after death — life in heaven with Jesus, Our Lady, and the saints.

(Today’s OXYGEN by Brenda Khoo)

Prayer: Dear Jesus, please help us to not live in fear of death, but help us to live with courage and hope of our eternal life in heaven after death. Amen.

Thanksgiving: Thank you Lord, for giving us Our Lady and the saints to guide us in our journey to our eternal life in heaven after our passing. Amen.