Living the Mass

Elizabeth impatiently looked at her watch and wondered, “What in the world could be taking her all eternity?” Almost half an hour had passed and Sandra was nowhere in sight in the coffee shop where they had agreed to meet.

“Liz! Liz!” Elizabeth sighed with relief as she spotted Sandra waving to her.

“Sandra dear, where in the world have you been to make me wait for almost an hour.” Elizabeth was never afraid to be frank to her high school best friend.

“There you go again, like a Cinderella who’s afraid to turn into a pumpkin,” Sandra defended herself.

“Girl, frankly I feel like I’ve turned into a pumpkin already waiting in coma for you nearly for half an hour!”

“Oh, come on, you know if I’m late then there must be some real reason,” Sandra explained as she settled herself and asked for the menu.

“But I was really quite worried,” Elizabeth replied in a more serious tone. “It’s not your usual self to be late. Where did you come from?”

“From the doctor,” Sandra pursed a smile and started reading the menu. “What would you like to have, Liz? It’s on me, remember?”

“Hey, don’t think I’m going to go easy just because you’re footing the bill. In fact, I think I’ll forget about my calorie count for the day!”

“So order whatever you want, Cinderella!”

* * *

“…don’t tell me you spent the entire morning with the doctor!”

“Of course not,” Sandra replied as she sipped her tea.

“Then what else were you up to?”

“I visited the nearby church to pray for a few minutes.”

“…so you prayed while I waited here like a vegetable,” Elizabeth teased her again.

Sandra lowered the cup of tea and looked at her friend pensively.

“Why are you suddenly looking so serious, Sandra?”

“I’m simply trying to see if you’re ready.”

“For what?” Elizabeth frowned. “We’ve been friends since grade school. You know me better than my own mother.”

“Then are you ready to listen to what I’m about to share with you?”

“I’m all ears. Besides is there anything I don’t know about you?”

“All right, then… What about the fact that I may only have six months to live?”

“Yeh, right! You’re bluffing, and I have only three,” Elizabeth retorted.

“Nope. Six months….only six, Liz.”

“You gotta be kidding me.”

“I’m not. That’s what the doctor told me this morning, and that’s what I told Jesus in the chapel.”

Elizabeth pushed the remaining plate of pastry away from her. She stared intensely at the woman –her best friend, Sandra– for a long time. Then she realized she was telling her the truth. Without words, she began to cry.

“Liz, I’m sorry,” Sandra tried to explain.

“You’re so unfeeling. How could you even tell me this casually, over pastry and tea ….”

“I am afraid, but there’s no time to be afraid when more important things are at stake,” Sandra said.

“More important things?” Elizabeth was bewildered. “You’re my friend! Don’t you even care about how I feel about you going?”

“Precisely, I’m telling you this because you’re the friend who will understand. Death is inevitable, but one can’t spend its arrival in fear. I am ready, and I’ve told Jesus that I have already embraced His will.”

“You know I’m not the right person for such spiritual stuff, Sandra,” she said.

“Even more so, that’s why I’m telling you. And I need you to help me to do those important things.”

“Me…?” Elizabeth regained her composure.

“Yes, Liz. Help me to pray that my grown-up children attend Mass again.”

“Me tell them?”

“Not directly, but at least even when I’m gone, tell them that I have accepted my condition asking God that in some sort of exchange, my death would help them realize the legacy of the Mass and attend it again.”

“Why the Mass?”

“I’ve realized that through the Mass only God can give eternal nourishment in His body and blood. Through the Mass only God can give us Heaven and that through the Mass, only God could give us grace and holiness. I pray that in whatever way, I could leave this as an inheritance for my children.”

“All right, I’m in. How do you want me to begin?”

“Can you accompany me to daily Mass, at least for now when I can still attend it? I intend to offer them for my children.”

Elizabeth was silent for some time.

“Liz, dear, you don’t really have to, if it’s too hard for you,” Sandra interrupted her pensive mode.

“It’s perfectly all right. I’ll do it even if I’ll have to bring you every single day. But on one condition….”

“Sure, what?”

“Pull me up when you get there.”

“It’s a deal!”