dead and alive

We have come to think that we are either dead or alive. Or that we should be either dead or alive. When keepers of the law are looking for violators of the law, they want them dead or alive.

Yet, we could be dead, but still live. We could be alive, but be dying.

Jesus died many years ago, but He lives among many of us, we see Him still perform miracles, or we still see millions of people still listen to His teachings.

We recognize many heroes and saints who have died and fought in battle, that, had they not, we would not be where we are, and we honor them by celebrating their triumphs on the occassion of their beginning or end of life as we all know.

And there are those among us, who live among us, sometimes under the same roof as ours, under the same moon and stars as us, and yet they are dying. They die when they are hurt, heart-broken. They die when we shout at them in anger, sometimes when they commit mistakes even when covering up for our mistakes.

And there are those whom we may have not met, and yet they are hungry, or they are paralyzed, or they are ill; they are dying. And yet they still inhale and exhale. And yet their hearts are still beating.

And there are those who are alive, and are dying, who choose instead to be dead.

And there are those who choose to live after they die.

Life and death are not two separate, exclusive things. They could co-exist. We cannot really choose between them. But by choosing death when there is life is the end of life. But by choosing life even after death, is life as it really is.

Many of us alive are dying. Do we choose to die and end life?

And yet, though we may be dying, life is still at hand. Why end life, when it is something given to us?

Instead, let us look into living after our death. Just as heroes, and martyrs, and saints have--people who, during their lives, did something so humble and yet so great so as to be remembered and remain here on earth in our hearts and in our minds, and sometimes even in our actions--let us choose life.