The last day

A man lives as if he will always have time: for his wife, his children, his parents, for God, “once work calms down”. John Climacus says the remembrance of death is more necessary than any other discipline, as bread is more necessary than any other food.

Not to frighten you, but to put your priorities in order. Whoever knows he will leave does not waste his days on trifles, does not put off reconciliation, and bears insults more easily. John quotes an elder who said that no one can live today well unless he thinks it is his last. And he recalls that the Greek philosophers, too, called philosophy a meditation on death.

This thought is tied to the body. John advises that the table should remind you of the end, so that you overindulge less, and the bed of the grave, so that you idle less.

What is truly important, and what is only urgent?

A warning stands beside this rung. The thought should make you more alive and warmer towards people, not darker. If thoughts of death come from hopelessness, that is not this rung, but a sign to talk at once with someone close, a spiritual father or a doctor.

The question remains: when you see how much time has been lost, what will you do with the grief that comes?

N. Ž.