Attention please! Passengers for flight AA 144, to San Fran. Please make your way to Terminal 3, Gate 51. We are about to start boarding! 

This was my flight. However I was in no major hurry. After all, I had packed well. I pride myself at being organized and always highly prepared to be up and off at a moment's notice. Duty free shopping done, (Fr. Brian likes Irish whiskey!) I power walked to the gate. I had everything as I thought…as I thought…my passport! My God, I could not find it.

Mr. Organized had slipped up somewhere along the line. I searched pockets, my hand luggage, but no joy. There I was at check-in feeling the sweat of panic set in.  Suddenly a phone call from the duty free shop ended my agony. I had left my passport there.

My friends, going on a journey forces us to prepare well, to think carefully of what to take and what not to take. We must think on our toes, be smart, ready, alert and aware.

In today’s gospel, Jesus gives us some serious and urgent pointers regarding the flight of life. Be ready and prepared. But, we sure do get upset when life does not give us what we desire and want. The truth is: it never can, we can never have the full symphony because we are restless travelers and seldom in the moment. Life is a mixture of rewards and punishment and light and shadow. The tug and struggle will always be there because of the fires of tension and anxiety inside of us. For this life to make sense, we need to see it against the horizon of eternity. This is another urgent message Jesus wants to convey today.

If we believe this life is it and there is no more when we die: we simply may put too much pressure on this life. We may have too many unreasonable expectations. We may become frustrated with the limits of our lives and its unfreedoms; we may make crazy demands on ourselves, family, friends and our career. When we cease to lean on something beyond our own inflated egos, we demand some kind of heaven on this earth because our egos are not interested in truth or in God, only in control.

No doubt about it, we come into this world highly charged for life and bursting for fulfillment. On the flight of life somehow we can get beaten up and disappointed because we never quite find the rainbow's end. You see, the fact is: there is no perfect life. This earth can never be heaven. It was never meant to be. We can never have: life without death, light without shadow, joy without sorrow or love without grief. All of us travel on life’s journey with our clumsy unnecessary baggage: our family history, our bad choices, mistakes, regrets, resentments, wounds, anger and missed opportunities. 

We seem to have a dogged loyalty to what weighs us down. We are slow to let go. We are not great at traveling light. But we must lighten our baggage, forgive God, ourselves, others and even life itself for being damn unfair at times. By doing this we become leaner and looser in body and soul. We die better, at ease and at peace. We all deserve this.

It seems to me, to make sense of our lives we have to place them against a higher power and an after life, a gracious God and a heaven that awaits us. If we think we have all the answers, we may become too needy, lose focus and dive into bitterness, fall into depression or self destruct. Outside of a vision of life after death our journey would be very turbulent and incomplete. This is the value of belief. This is the value of our faith. It provides a solid safety belt of hope and trust, love and peace, forgiveness and reconciliation and a sure promise that all will be well in the end. We sure need this God-given assurance to live a healthy life. The fact is: God undercuts all our schemes, plans, and all the best psychology in the world. What we are searching for is already given. We seldom find God. It is God finds us.

To conclude: Our response to death should be gently positive if we see it in the context of the grace of an afterlife. It is not how or when we die that matters but how we have lived our joys and sorrows, our struggles and good times. We will always die in a state of incompleteness because of our restless hearts.

Our work and all our plans will be far from being realized. That is the mystery, the risk and rhythm of life. All we can do is: be as prepared and ready as is possible, be true to our responsibilities, kind to ourselves and faithful to our God.

Like the cabin crew on that long-haul flight of life, Jesus in the gospel is asking for our attention, instructing us to fasten the seatbelt of hope and trust, for the journey, to be ready for a homecoming; however, not to a state of panic or high anxiety. Our God invites us not to be afraid: to push back, enjoy the friendly flight, celebrate the moment, relax, kick off our shoes and live life to the full.

So be ready for your heavenly call, Jesus tells us today. And my friends, when we begin the descent, fasten your safety belts but do not fret or shake. At the end of life’s journey, yes, we do fall; we fall into the love of God! We come home. 

‘Home is where we start from and where we finish.’

Amen!