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No matter how death is certain, we will always be surprised by death. The past week witnessed the death of three people I know. Indeed, who does not know the King of Pop and Charlie’s Angel Grace on the other hand is a dear aunt a very simple woman whom each one of us has who went through life without spotlight without controversy.

In the days, weeks and months to come, many famous and infamous people will die. It does not take a genius to figure that out. But we will continue to be surprised. We can never prepare for death even if our science says that as we breathe, we die. We are oxidizing away everyday. Our Christian perspective may tell us that death is not the final word; that we must each day die to our-selves in order to live, but the specter of death hounds us in our daily awakenings.

What is the lesson in this? For us in the rat race, simply that if and when we win the race, we are still rodents. For those in power and in positions of authority, do good and let the positive ripple across. Why abuse? For the oppressed and the poor, things are not so bad. Indeed, death is the great equalizer. We grew up with this adage. We only begin to grasp the force of it.

When we were teenagers, we hurried to grow up. To enter the real world and do what we want. Our working years are spent on the search for stability. In retirement, we look back to the things undone. All these clichs hit us. Why is it then that we continue to live without taking stock of the limited duration of our so many or so few years of human existence?

I said this before and I must say it again: we live as if we live forever. We do not think of the immediacy of death until someone we know personally or vicariously calls it quits or is visited by the dark angel. When we experience a near-death experience be it an accident or a big C diagnosis, life can be instantly transformed. We become kinder, gentler and better. And then we forget. We go back to our nasty selves, our pettiness and our fears. It is part of our curse that it takes more than a jolt.

Funny how God chose to create us in this form and substance?called to holiness but mired in grime. If there is no God, life is just one, long, arduous journey to nowhere. Making the most out of life would mean maximizing our variety and depth of experiences without a reference to why it is so. It means flitting from one adventure to the next only because there is a cycle of life that revolves around itself but never tending toward a future.

These thoughts occupy me as I took the last plane out of my hometown. Aunty Grace was breathing her last. She was tired and so thin. Her family and friends were by her side to gather, to pray and to share. With the posters of Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett amidst the pile of documents, death only inspires the living to go on and not to surrender to the reality of the shortness of life but to aspire to its fullness.

Let us not be cowards, afraid of fighting evil. With an eye on the true meaning of life, let us serve notice on ourselves that though death is certain, life too is certain. We may be surprised by the passing of someone; we need be surprised by the joy of being with someone.

Dear friends and readers, with empathy for our common human condition, please pause and reflect on what truly is essential and important. It may be the only thought we have today that matters.

Wilson Chua
Mabinihall - Access to Justice
http://www.mabinihall.com
wilson.chua@gmail.com