People often say that there are two things in life that they can always count on: death and taxes. If this is the case, then allow me to suggest that you let your accountant take care of your taxes and let the Dominicans help you to take care of death.

Death involves a great deal of loss. The letting go of a loved one is very difficult especially when all the joyful memories linger like a sweet fragrance filling each room of your heart and home. There are also the feelings of lost chances or opportunities: to tell someone how much you loved them or to seek reconciliation, among other irretrievable moments. Death does not come at a scheduled time each year. Even if it did, there would still be many who would rush around at the last moments putting things in order or begging for an extension.

Jesus unmistakably repeats over and over again, "Therefore you also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect (Matt 24:44)." Also, Jesus is hopeful that if we were to know the time, we would make sure we are prepared: "But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into (Luke 12:39)."

We don't know the exact time when we will die but we do know that it will happen one day. How to be ready? How will we be like the householder who knows the thief is on the way?

Like the Dominicans, I recommend that you keep death close at hand. This may sound quite morbid. In fact, it is just the opposite. St. Ambrose makes this point well in writing:

Death must be active within us if life also is to be active within us. "Life" is life after death, a life that is a blessing. This blessing of life comes after victory, when the contest is over, when the law of our fallen nature no longer rebels against the law of our reason, when we no longer need to struggle against the body that leads to death, for the body already shares in victory. [...] [The Apostle] therefore teaches us to seek out this kind of death even in this life, so that the death of Christ may shine forth in our lives-that blessed death by which our outward self is destroyed and our inmost self renewed, and our earthly dwelling crumbles away and a home in heaven opens before us. (From a Treatise of Death as a Blessing, St. Ambrose, Bishop)

One way to keep death at hand is to pray for those who have gone before us. Throughout the Order of Preachers, the Dominican Friars recall the brethren who have died on a particular day each day of the year. They recite the name of the Friar(s) who died on that day and then pray together the De Profundis (Psalm 130). The place where the De Profundis is recited in larger priories is known as the De Profundis corridor. In the early history of the Order, the brethren were buried in this cloister corridor. For this reason, St. Dominic, at the time of his death, requested that he be buried "at the feet of the brethren".

Walking along the De Profundis corridor in silence, the Friar recalls those who have gone before him by doing for them what they can no longer do for themselves: pray to God for His mercy towards them. He also recalls his own mortality. Praying for the deceased brethren is an act of great charity that follows from the Friar's profession. When asked by his superior, "What do you seek?" He responds, "God's mercy and yours." The bond of our fraternity is not broken by death but endures as we aid the souls in purgatory as the saints aid us with their intercession. We continue to be merciful to one another out of the bond of charity as noted in the prayer said after the recitation of the De Profoundis:

O God, Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful, grant to your servants and handmaidens the remission of their sins, that they may obtain by our loving prayers the forgiveness which they have always desired. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

St. Dominic would pray all night for sinners that God may be merciful to them because he loved them. In an act of mercy he sold his prized books in order to give the proceeds to the poor. Hence, mercy is much more than sympathizing with the situation of another person. Effective mercy, as taught by St. Thomas Aquinas, is alive in us when we take advantage of various opportunities and moments to relieve the suffering of another person.

Today, we carry out a spiritual act of mercy by praying for the souls in purgatory, our departed brothers and sisters, known to us and unknown, that through our prayers and acts of penance they may achieve what they so ardently desire - the forgiveness of their sins (remission of the temporal punishment of their sins).

Another way to keep death close at hand, is to learn - relearn - what it means to live fully in Christ without fear but in freedom. The Dominican tradition, with St. Thomas' teaching on the virtuous life, reminds us that we are created in the image and likeness of God and that we are drawn by God back to Himself through everyday life. How do we make choices each day? How will these choices bring us closer to our ultimate happiness, attainable only through the unavoidable doorway of death that leads to the beatific vision of God?

The view of morality in which living a virtuous life is solely a matter of rules that one checks off, is like getting ready for tax day. You do it and then you forget about it until next time - unless of course you had to pay a great penalty and then you do what you can to avoid that penalty next time!

Rarely does such a view of morality change a person's life. On the contrary, many have struggled with this point of view and are overwhelmed by it as they rely on their own power. Exhausted by trying, they often give up. Life is then overshadowed by death and fear arises when they realize all their accounts must be in order. How can one find peace in finding one's ledger in the red when time has run out?

Keeping death close at hand in the Dominican tradition is indeed to acknowledge with humility one's own faults, sins, and need for conversion, through God's mercy and the mercy of one's neighbor. It is to say with St. Paul, "But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain (1 Cor 15:10)."

The virtuous life is taking hold of God's grace in your life every day and not waiting until the last moment like paying your taxes. After a while you get used to living that way. The virtues are lived out promptly, easily, and even joyfully (if you can believe it!). You are not worried about a deadline because you are ready. Similarly, the virtuous person, daily practicing the theological and moral virtues, lives a life that radiates from an interior desire for being good, truthful, merciful, temperate, prudent, and so on. Little by little, we find ourselves "being compassionate as [our] heavenly Father is compassionate" and realize the gift we have received to "become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4)."

There is congruency between being the person God has called me to be and God who has made His dwelling within us. As Jesus reminds us, "If a man loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him (John 14:23)." We are already at home with God but not yet fully. Fear does not keep us from death but love draws us through death as we return to Him loving Him, our neighbor, and confessing our sins seeking mercy. In this way, we live fully the life of God within us as His sons and daughters.

Today, know of my prayers for you and for your deceased loved ones. As in my reflection on the Rosary in October, I invite you to write to me with the names of your loved ones for whom you would like me to pray during this month of November which the Church devotes to prayer for the Holy Souls in Purgatory. As you can see from this video clip, we Dominicans pray for our deceased brethren, and offer annual Masses for deceased parents and family members and for our deceased benefactors. We also have an annual tradition at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC that in November, the month when the Church remembers the dead, the Student Brothers visit the nearby cemetery of our deceased brethren and pray for them.

In the end you can count on two things: our prayers for you and fidelity to the Charism of the Order to preach Jesus Christ, today, yesterday, and forever.

I leave you with our prayer for you in the words of St. Paul to the Colossians:

We have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to His glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (Col 1:9-12)