“We all now live and walk in the shadow of death, for death is not across the seas,
but is right behind each of us.” -Saint Anthony

This world, full of procrastination and apathy, offers mankind vain ways out of death. The nihilistic machine promises that death is not around the corner from us, but rather is very far away. We are told that we are safe in our neighborhoods; suburbia has become some sort of false haven where death does not exist. This ignorance towards our end has left us rotting inside. Although we might buy into the world’s ‘everlasting beauty’, our souls have become leprous and sinful, rotting like a tomb. We go about our lives without a care, not ever thinking that this day might be our last. Inside we are being eaten alive by worms and our bodies, although they might look young on the outside, give off the foul stench of a rotting corpse. When we ignore this stench and assume that death is very far away, we fail to prepare for it. We buy into the world’s procrastination and think that we can just choose God on our death bed. This is a popular and atrocious lie. Blinded by this world’s procrastination we fail to see reality. But don’t we all know that both the young and the old die and return to their dust? The truth is that we do not know the hour or the day in which death will come to our doors. There is no way to run from it; today could be our last. What will happen then, when the soul is ripped from the body? The soul will remember the sins and temptations of its past life, bitterly sorrowing over every irretrievable day which passed without benefit. Now, when the weakness of the flesh is constrained by the corruption of the tomb, the soul will be lost not knowing where to go. The failure to prepare for this separation from the body will torment the soul and leave it in despair, without its Creator. Remember that death can come at any hour and so begin to prepare for it. Die to the things of this world, so that when you die your soul does not die.