In the past few weeks I have had the blessed opportunity to minister the sacrament of anointing of the sick to about half a dozen people approaching death. There are those who resist until the last breath, but all of these people are very much at peace with what is inevitable for all of us but a bit closer for them than we think for ourselves. I recall one person very close to death some years a

go, when visiting I asked him how he fealt about his impending death. He told me that he long ago accepted the inevitability of death, was anxious to move into the next life, but still held two lingering questions in his last days: "Did I pray enough?" and "Did I love enough?" We had a long conversation that evening about both of those questions. He died before dawn the next day. It occurs to me that these are the two questions we might pose to ourselves before we go to sleep each night, reviewing the day behind us and looking forward to the next.

After all, what else really matters?

 

December 7, 2012

Msgr. William J. King