The Greatest Good

“No one knows whether death, which people fear to be the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good.” … Plato

On this, the day after the so-called Judgment Day that never was, I see this quote and think of all the people that were anxious yesterday. Those who were truly afraid, scared about the end of the world and the end of their lives … all for naught. Death is fearful for many people … that too, all for naught.

The frenzy about the “last day” was interesting to me. Silly for sure, as many in the media were saying. But the fact is the end of the world … our world … can come at any moment, not on some artificially appointed day. Our last breath won’t be surely anticipated at all … it will come and there will be no more. It probably won’t happen with hoopla or media … it will more likely come quietly, on little cat feet, perhaps when we least expect it.

Plato is right … and wrong. When he says “no one knows” I can disagree … believers do know. When he says death may be the greatest good, I can agree … believers do know that, too.

As one of my favorite poets T.S. Eliot said, “In my beginning is my end.” That is the essential truth of life … we will begin and we will end, all in our own due time. There will in fact be a Judgment Day at some point … I believe that. But we will also have our very own. And our eternal life will prove that death is indeed the greatest good.