Degrees of Death

These last few days have brought news in varying ways. The loss of Ed McMahon was first, then Farah Fawcett and finally Michael Jackson. Each had died in different ways! Each of them had crosses in life as well. Farah suffered bodily and kept her faith. She received the Sacrament of Extreme Unction, known today as the Anointing of the Sick or Last Rites. She was prepared where many are not. As in the case of Michael Jackson and how swiftly life ends.

It's sad to come to understand how tenuous life is. We mourn the loss of people we do not know personally. Yet fail to mourn the loss of unborn children when it is taken from the womb as if their existence was not a gift. How many that have died who could have become a parent, a sister, brother a friend. God did not sanction that there should be only so many people to live on this planet and the rest must be rid of. He is the maker of life. Life of the living and those who go on to eternal life after death.

The life we live and how we live it will determine the end result, the degrees of death. When we die, is it life we seek or is it death?