By Fr. Glenn Jones:

Please … just leave my old bones alone.

I was watching a BBC Timestamp Youtube video the other day in which they were excavating a medieval church in England, uncovering the skeleton of someone who had a chalice buried with him—apparently a priest. Poor guy; he probably thought he’d be undisturbed until the general resurrection that Christians anticipate. Nope.

It’s odd that while people are incensed if it’s requested that the body of a relative be exhumed, yet we dig up long-dead bodies almost without qualm. Certainly we understand the fascination of how people lived in the past, but is there a real practical value in digging them up, or is it mostly intellectual curiosity? We say, “Rest in Peace”, but don’t LET them rest in peace. Imagine the fury of ancient Egyptian pharaohs and other kings, after having had extremely elaborate pyramids and tombs built for themselves, to know that their mummies are put on display like circus attractions. Just sayin’.

Rather than dig up my moldy old carcass, I—like just about everyone else—hope and pray there’s something I’ll have left behind a lot better than decaying flesh. After all, in a strictly material sense, Shakespeare was perceptive (albeit gruesome) when he wrote of death: “We fat all creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for maggots. Your fat king and your lean beggar is but variable service—two dishes, but to one table. That’s the end…A man may fish with the worm that hath eat of a king, and eat of the fish that hath fed of the worm.” (Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 3) Or, more Biblically (and poetically), we might remember: “… the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Ecclesiastes 12:7)

Yes, to have produced fruits of a life lived in bettering the world around us is true life’s satisfaction. I’ve often mentioned here that striking slogan highlighted in the movie “Kingdom of Heaven”: “What man IS a man that does not make the world better?” Good words to live life by, and an essential kernel of the Christian faith … and of any religion or philosophy developed for the good of Mankind and the world.

We Christians have the constant urging by of Jesus to seek to help those in most need—to produce such fruits that He praises in the Gospels. These are fruits good in themselves, and that non-Christians, too, recognize as beneficial, outlined particularly in Matthew 25—feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, visiting the sick, the lonely and the imprisoned. Clothing the naked.

We in first-world countries have ample opportunity to contribute to such causes with our material resources, but how great it is to help also with our other precious resource: with our time. Modern life comes with much distraction, but how much do those enhance our lives? How much fruit do they produce for those around us? The gifts given us are not for us alone, and really not for us primarily. St. Paul reminds us that “… we are [God’s] workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:10)

“Yeah, but I have lots of time.” Oh, really; you know when your time will run out? Not only can we not know that, but we who are older can tell you that time goes awfully durn fast! The country singer Kenny Chesney’s “Don’t Blink” that reminds us that “A hundred years go faster than you think” is right on target.

In that vein, Jesus often speaks to us about life’s fragility and the urgency in doing good. He reminds us that we know neither the day nor the hour of our physical demise, so a day wasted is a day lost, never to be “given back”. No do-overs for lost time. He tells us that both tragedies and rejoicings come in life…that it rains upon both the just and the unjust. The hourglass runs out. No one is guaranteed a set amount of time for earthly life.

But even those with the best of intention to do works of charity tend to get so comfortable, so distracted—scrolling our phones, chasing our schedules, putting off the hard work of change. We think: “I’ll forgive tomorrow,” or “I’ll deal with that grudge later.” Or “I’ll do some good works … tomorrow.” But Jesus cuts through that: “No; today is the day.”

We Christians recall Jesus’ parable of the fig tree. A man has a fig tree in his vineyard. For three years, he checks it—no fruit. Annoyed, he’s ready to chop it down. “Why should this useless thing clutter up my land?” he says. Sounds reasonable. If a plant isn’t producing, it’s just leeching.  But the gardener steps in: “Sir, leave it one more year. I’ll dig around it, put on manure—give it a chance to bear fruit.” And the owner agrees.

We Christians know that the gardener is Jesus. It’s water: the Holy Spirit. The tree? You and me. And the owner? God the Father, who expects fruit from us—love, kindness, charity. “We are created for good works,” and works are faith in action. Three—or many—years with no figs; that could be us, stuck in old habits, barren where we could be blooming. But our blooming is much our own choice; we are given our wills, and we need but will ourselves to do the good. God already gives the grace. Small things, done with love, are the figs God’s looking for. Figs are delicious but small, but a good tree produces a lot of them.

So let’s not waste the precious time we have. Let us bear fruit; we can if we choose. As we read: “Before a man are life and death; he is given whichever he chooses.” (Sirach 15:17) So, as Moses urged the Israelites: “Choose life…” Choose goodness. Choose charity. Choose holiness. So as to be planted eternally in our Heavenly home. True legacy secure. Forever.

Editor’s note: Rev. Glenn Jones is the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe and former pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Los Alamos.