Live Ready

“Teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.” — Psalm 90:12 (KJV)

Thomas wrote a lot about death. It may seem a strange subject for teenagers, but he was writing for young people, and he thought the best time to learn how to live well was while you were young.

He is direct: “Today we live; tomorrow we die and are quickly forgotten.” And: “Tomorrow is an uncertain day; how do you know you will have a tomorrow?” That isn’t meant to frighten you. It is meant to wake you up. Most of us live as though there will always be time later to get serious about God. Thomas says: don’t count on later.

His best line on the subject is this:

“How happy and prudent is he who tries now in life to be what he wants to be found in death.”

In other words, become now the person you want to be at the end. Don’t plan to sort out your life with God someday. Start today. “If you had a good conscience you would not fear death very much.”

Thomas didn’t only want people to be ready to die. He wanted them to be really alive, and he believed real life comes from Christ. In Book IV, which is about Communion, he writes that in this life we need two things above all, “food and light.” He saw them in the bread of Communion and in the Bible: “the word of God is the light of my soul and Your Sacrament is the Bread of Life.”

Thomas was a Catholic priest, and he believed Christ is truly present in the bread and wine. Christians from different churches understand Communion differently. But every Christian can hear the heart of what he is saying. You need the word of God to see where you are going, and you need Christ himself to keep you alive. Jesus called himself “the bread of life” and said his word is a light for our path.

So here is where Thomas leaves us. Follow Jesus. Copy him. Read his word. Come to his table. Keep short accounts with God, and live today the way you would want to be found at the end. Thomas lived like that for over ninety years. He died at Mount St Agnes in July 1471, after the night prayers. Six hundred years later, the advice he wrote for his young novices is still helping young people find their way, and it can help you too.

One thing to do this week: write a short letter to your future self: the kind of person you want to be when you are old, as a follower of Jesus. Then pick one way to start being that person this week, and do it.