“It is your turn now.”
by Rev. Tom Coughlin
A friend of mine, Jose and I went to the
dentist office recently. Since he had an
appointment with the dentist just before mine, we went together in the same
car. He told me that he hated going to
the dentist because it meant painful drillings.
He looked scared and it did make me feel very uneasy about going to the
dentist.
He first went in and I waited for almost
an hour in the waiting room. I feared
the worse for him and when he came out, he said to me: “It was not so bad after
all.” The receptionist came behind him
and waved to me, saying: “It is your turn now.”
I could feel my heart jumped a bit, knowing that I had to face the
inevitable…pain and pain on the dentist chair!
I did not find the words, “It is your turn now,” soothing to me. It sounded so frightening and foreboding.
However, the treatment was not bad after
all. The pain of injection and drilling
did come and go. I felt fine afterwards. I was happy to see my friend in the dental
office and to leave the office right away.
I realized how foolish I was about being afraid of going to the dentist
in the first place.
The words, “It is your turn now” has an
ominous feeling to it. It can be a moment of triumph at waiting for something
good we have been waiting for or a moment of trembling at encountering some
unpleasant event such as meeting with an angry principal or boss.
In our lives, we experience many
unpleasant events in seeing many of our family members, friends and relatives
die. When we see them dying, we wonder
to ourselves: “When will it be our turn to die?” We have no idea when our final moments will
be. Sometime we may feel as if we are
sitting in the outer office of heaven, waiting to hear the words of St. Peter,
telling us: “It is your turn right now.” We ask ourselves: our turn for what? To leave this life and cross over the threshold of life and death. Is that what we want? We are not so sure if we want to do that.
Many deaf people often asked me what it
would be like after when we die. Truthfully speaking, no one can give a good
answer. Shakespeare once wrote:
“But
that the dread of something
After
death, the undiscovered country,
From
whose bourn, No traveler returns,
Puzzles
the will, and makes us rather
Bear
those ills we have than fly to
Others that we know not of?”
(Hamlet
3:1.56-83)
Dying is something we may not find
pleasant, but it will come to us someday.
There is no way we can avoid the moment of our own death. It is something that is very much part of our
life: birth and death. The best we can
do is to accept what will happen to us.
We may find that dying can be scary as
going to the dentist or doctor. However,
as soon as we go through the experience of dying and death, we will discover
that it may not be so bad after all such as going to the dentist.
St. Francis of
Jesus tells us that our God is a
benevolent God and He will kindly lead you across the threshold of life and
death. Once you cross over death into
eternal life, you will start to laugh and realize that it is not that bad after
all. All the pain and sorrows of our
earthly life will disappear when we behold the glorious face of the living
God. We will be filled with much joy and
happiness when we see our loved ones greeting us in our eternal home.
Revelation 21: 3-4 tells us: “I heard a loud voice speaking from the
throne: “Now God’s home is with people!
He will live with them, and they shall be his people. God himself will be with them, and he will be
their God. He will wipe away all tears
from their eyes. There will be no more
death, no more grief or crying or pain.
The old things have disappeared.”
The words of
“It is your turn now” will not be so bad after all.