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• Description: Jesus Christ clearly in today’s gospel wants us to meditate upon death. He wants us to help us prepare for it. This is the point of the parable we’ve just heard. Today I’ll talk about a couple of characteristics of death and then give air to a few objections which are held by people, it’s fair enough in an optimistic manner, about talking about such a morbid topic. First though the question, are their any benefits when talking about death? Very simple, one super benefit, it discourages us from doing bad and encourages to do good. To do good while we can. You know, there was a convert to Judaism many, many years ago, a king named Moabaz. A famine entered his kingdom. He sold all the treasures that he had and he fed the poor. The young princes, his brothers, they were scandalised; they said ‘What have you done. You have not only sold all of your own treasures, but all the treasures that our fathers have gathered up before.’ Moabaz responded, ‘Our fathers gathered up treasures for here below, for this world. I have gathered up treasures for above, for that world.’ You see Moabaz had his mind fixed on the hereafter and this enabled him to good in the here and now. If we apply this to ourselves, we think about the hereafter, unfortunately the consequence is that we have to think about death, because that is what comes before. So death, what are the characteristics, very simple, easy to remember, death is certain, yet uncertain. Certain you say, yes, course it is, we’re all going to experience it. Rich, poor, strong, weak, sinner, saint alike. Lady death will smile on each one of us. Who can deny it? Who can deny it?… For Fr. Nicholas’ complete homily please listen to the Audio.