Life after Birth

I spent this last week on the campus of Texas A&M University where I was one of the directors for a Busy Student Retreat at St. Mary’s Catholic Student Center.    This is an opportunity for ‘busy’ students to commit to meeting with a spiritual director for 30 minutes a day and to spend 30 minutes in personal prayer each day for four days – Monday thru Thursday.  I will put in a plug for the Aggie spirit here - this is one of the best Catholic student centers in the nation.

I took a walk over to the Bonfire Memorial on campus Tuesday morning.  This commemorates the tragedy that happened on November 18, 1999.  The Aggies have a tradition of building a bonfire before the annual football game with the University of Texas.   Over the years this became a huge, and I mean a HUGE stack of logs that could be as high as 40 feet and contain as many as 5000 logs.  In 1999, the stack collapsed while over 50 students were working on it, killing 12 and injuring 27.   There are 12 portals around a ring commemorating the 12 students who died with remembrances from their families or sayings from the students, themselves, etched on the portals. 

One student was remembered for saying this (and I paraphrase because I don’t remember it exactly) -

“Grab a hold of life and go for the ride, for while not everyone lives, everyone dies.”   

This reminds me of a question I heard years ago, “Is there life after birth?” 

Yes…it is asking about birth…not death. 

One might say that’s a stupid thing to ask, of course there is life after birth!   However, if we are not living the life God calls us to live then we are more dead than alive.  God calls us to the fullness of life.  For some of us, that may be a call to religious life.  We have to be willing to set aside our fears and ‘go for the ride’.   It’s best to live out our life like a candle that has completely burnt itself out, giving all, holding nothing back. 

Will there be life after your birth?