Dear Parishioners of Mary Immaculate and Saint Rose,
        This past week I experienced an unexpected shock.  Or perhaps I should say I experienced an unexpected reaction to something that I knew was coming. For several months my parents have been talking about buying the monument for their grace.  I have been supportive of this as it ensures that they have what they want and it is one less thing that their children will have to decide.  My mother called and excitedly told me that the monument had been chosen and was already in place.  Then she said, “I will send you a picture of it.”                         
        Even though I knew what was coming, I was unprepared for my reaction, which was to instantly dissolve in a fit of weeping!  Here I was totally prepared, no one died, there was no tragedy, yet the mere reminder of the spectre of death was enough to set me off.                                                               
       During this time of November we are reminded of the reality of what we call the four last things: death, judgement, heaven, and hell. No one likes to be reminded of the temporary nature of human life and yet, if we do not think of our own mortality, how can we be even slightly prepared for the end of life?  From the moment we are born we know that one day we will die.  Death comes to us all.  We as Catholics think of this not in a fearful or morbid way, but with the hope that there is something beyond death.  We profess to believe in eternal life.                                                                                            
          We also believe that we will stand before the throne of God and be judged according to our deeds here on earth,  We pray that we will be found pleasing to God.  Then we will either enter the Heavenly Kingdom or spend time in further purification and contrition in purgatory until we are made ready for the fullness of heaven.                                                                  Then there is hell.  How can a loving God send people to hell?  The short answer is that He doesn’t.  It is hard to accept, but people go to hell because they choose it for themselves.  God gave us free will. We can choose to be with Him or not.  And even though God will do everything possible to help us to choose Him, He still cannot take our freedom to choose away.                                                                                                                                                   So we think of the four last things to help us to choose to be with God.  Heath will always catch us a bit off guard, but it should not catch us unprepared.  Each day we should strive to follow our Lord Jesus more closely, that when the time comes for us to die, we will cast ourselves into His loving arms.

                                   Deuteronomy 30:19 I have set before you life and death, the blessing                                         and the curse. Choose life. . .

                                                                     Msgr. Cox
 
The Last Judgement by Michelangelo (1536-1541).  Behind the altar of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City.