Come, it’s ready!

Simone Riva - Last week, in fifth grade, the hour was magnetized by the kids' question I wrote on the blackboard, "What is after death?" All of them were keen to expound their ideas on the question that concerns every man's life: the possibility of lasting forever.

The lyrics of the song "Love Counts" (2005) by Luciano Ligabue come to mind, whose refrain sounds like this: "Love counts. Do you know another way to cheat death?" If we are all condemned to suffer death, it will be convenient to find a way to cheat it. Indeed, there is a way; the most stubborn clue is our desire for life. Benedict XVI unsurpassedly described this tension that inhabits us: "On the one hand, we do not want to die; especially those who love us do not want us to die.

On the other hand, however, we also do not desire to continue to exist indefinitely, and even the earth was not created with this in mind. So what do we want?

This paradox of our attitude raises a more profound question: What, in reality, is "life"? And what does "eternity" really mean? There are moments when we suddenly perceive: yes, that would be precisely it—true "life"—so it should be.

By comparison, what we call 'life' in everyday life, in truth, is not "(" Spe Salvi," 11). To be able to "cheat death" requires a living life, filled with those sudden moments in which it comes back into the limelight. It is not a matter, then, of "being good," but of being alive. Before a full life, even death must take a step back. Death of the heart, I mean, because to the death of the body, a remedy has already been historically laid: the resurrection. Nothing of us will be lost.

This, too, is one of the most insistent desires we carry with us. Not surprisingly, in the same class hour, almost all of the children's views on the reality after death had to do with some form of "reincarnation," as if not wanting to disappear from circulation. Just as the rapidity of the spread of a phenomenon such as Halloween demonstrates—beyond whether or not it should be indulged—the urgency of assuming the beyond.

Each person has to check whether this attempt holds up, whether it is reasonable, and whether it can stand before our own and our children's questions... however, everything around us says that we cannot sit idly by in the face of being snatched from life. However, an Other has already taken the initiative and has not stood idly by, as the Gospel the liturgy offers for today suggests: "He answered him," A man gave a great supper and made many invitations. 

At dinner, he sent the servant to say to the guests, 'Come, it is ready.' But they all began to excuse themselves one by one" (Le 14:16-18). The dinner of life is ready, but the risk of missing the invitation is excellent. There are many excuses for postponing or declining it, and we know one can decide to settle for it.

The dinner was there and ready, but we did not prepare it. This will force us to face the same daily alternative: live or live on. There is no other way to "cheat death."

The author has not revised the translation.

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