The Gift of Mortality

If we were all immortal, then there would be no reason to live. There would be no one to take care for. There would be no one to nourish. There would be no births, no deaths, no babies, no aged and no disease. There would be no one; new. We would be as we are. We would have no desire to learn, for we would know all things necessary to know.

Life would not be worth living. Oh, sure, there would still be buildings to build and re-build, clothing to make, food to grow. But those things would simply be the status quo. Impressing your neighbors would be a moot point. All things that could be done would already have been done.

Truly living is to be engaged. Engaged in life, in people and in creating things new and better. Immortality takes away any incentive to engage anything. This make our mortality a gift. The gift of desire. To be engaged. To give birth, to aid the aged, and the inflicted. Even grief, as painful as it is, is a gift. For we can’t grieve without first having loved. And love [charity] is our greatest calling. Charity is what brings us the most gratification.

Charity is born from our mortality. Charity houses and clothes the poor and feeds the hungry. Charity brings light to injustice and justice to the most vulnerable. Our mortality brings out our humanity in us. Our mortality is a gift, not a scourge, from God. For without our mortality, complacency would be the rule. Immortality would allow us to live forever, but our mortality allows us to be alive!

May you always be alive in life!

David E. Gonzales