Victor R. Claveau, MJ
Suppose death came to you this moment – would you be ready, would you be in the state of grace, in God’s friendship, would you be prepared to stand before an all-holy Judge? Or, would there be an urgent, eternal need for more time to straighten out some injustice or unkindness you had committed?
Suppose we were to march out to the cemetery, stop at every grave and ask each dweller there what he or she would have done if they had been given another hour of life, of if they had been brought back from the dead for a few hours or days. Most of them we hope, were ready. But without a doubt a good number could have used a few more moments of life to clear their souls of sin, to right some wrong they had done, and even to get themselves sincerely into the friendship of God. Another chance at life might even have meant the difference between eternal life and eternal death.
Suppose you were being carried out to the cemetery this very hour. What would be the condition of your soul?
Would you be in a state of grace? Are you in the friendship of God this very moment? Or, is your soul in such a state, that should you be called, the Judge would have to tell you: “Depart from Me”?
Would there be some deed of dishonesty which you had never made right, some article great or small, which you had stolen and never returned, some money which you had received or taken dishonestly, some bills which you had unjustly neglected to pay, some damage you had done to another’s property, some dishonest failure to pay your share in the expenses of the Church?
Would there be some blot of impurity on your soul, some deliberate unchaste thought, some filthy story, some deed of impurity whether alone or with another? And would there be some other soul you had dragged into the gutter of impurity, some soul whose innocence you had destroyed? What a responsibility!
If death closed your eyes this hour, would there be some unkindness you had never made good, some definitely uncharitable thought or word or deed, some jealous, revengeful, mean and unkind thing you had done? Search your soul.
Have you been disobedient, disrespectful, even insulting to your parents, sinfully thoughtless toward your spouse? Have you set a bad example to your family and your friends? With such a load on your soul it would be impossible to rise up to God.
We should think of our own death. We will not get a second chance. We die only once. Be ready.
Eschatology: (Greek ἔσχατος – eschatos meaning “last” and – logy meaning “the study of”). The branch of theology that treats of the Four Last Things — Death, Judgment, Heaven, Hell.
The only certain thing in life is that life will end. Death is certain. Every day brings proof of that you and I will die. Walking among us in the daily dance of life, death gives no announcement of his coming.
People die at every age of life. Young as well as old, babies as well as grandparents, healthy as well as sick; no year of life is spared. If you want striking proof of this, read the obituary notices in some large city newspaper.
Death, then, is a fact. In reality, it is the only fact of life. It is not always a happy or cheerful thought. Nevertheless, we must face it bravely and intelligently. We talk of death, we think of death, not with the idea of frightening ourselves, not with any morbid idea of looking at something gloomy just for the sake of being gloomy. No, we face it, as we want to face all facts and realities. Knowing approximately when we are going to die is a gift. We have, if needed, time to right our wrongs, to forgive those who have hurt us, to leave behind our memoirs, to tell our family and friends we love them, and most importantly to reconcile ourselves with God.
St. Augustine wrote, “If we celebrate birth, we should celebrate death.” Death is the door to everlasting life; in which we express our belief. Death is also the prelude to the resurrection of the body, in which we also believe. Incidentally, only those who believe in the resurrection of the body have a sensible, reasonable view regarding death. How terrible death must be to one who thinks that it ends all! How bitter to those left behind!
Most people say they want to go to heaven, but just not today. Heaven can wait, as they say. In contrast, Catherine of Jesus, a Spanish Carmelite nun and mystic, when asked by Jesus if she wanted to go with Him, answered: “Yes, Lord.” And when Jesus asked her in turn when she wanted to go, she replied, “Immediately, Lord, immediately.” Fear of death may seem natural, since we generally fear the unknown and we fear suffering. However, the prevalent attitude among the saints is quite different and we can learn much from them. Instead of fearing death, they go as far as longing for it. They set their gaze past the suffering of the last agony and focus on the embrace of their beloved and the entrance into eternal life.
When saints longed for death, they were not trying to escape the harsh realities in which many of them lived, or the sufferings they endured. When saints longed for death, it was really God and heaven they were longing for. It is the knowledge that in heaven, their salvation is no longer at risk and they will no longer be able to offend God there.
The saints long for heaven because they realize that it is their true home, and that there is no lasting happiness in this world. Everything here is transitory.
Archbishop Fulton J. Sheen tells us:
“Death can be robbed of its greatest fearfulness if we practice for it. Christianity recommends mortification, penance, and detachment as a rehearsal for this great event. For every death should be a great masterpiece, and like all masterpieces, it cannot be completed in a day. A sculptor who wishes to carve a figure out of a block uses his chisel, first cutting away great chunks of marble, then smaller pieces, until he finally reaches a point where only a brush of hand is needed to reveal the figure. In the same way, the soul has to undergo tremendous mortifications at first, and then more refined detachments, until its divine image is revealed.”[1]
“Death is meant to be our true birth, our beginning. Christianity, in contrast to paganism, always blesses her children’s spiritual birth into eternity; in the liturgy, the day on which a saint dies is called his natilitia, or birthday. The world celebrates a birthday on the day a person is born to eternal life. There are only three exceptions to this, and they were made for very good reasons: the only physical birthdays in the liturgy are those of Our Divine Lord (December 25), of the Blessed Mother (September 8), and of St. John the Baptist (June 24). This is because each of these births marked a special infusion of Divine Life into the world: our Lord is Eternal Life; the Blessed Mother, through Her Immaculate Conception, participated in that Eternal Life from the first moment of Her Conception; and St. John the Baptist was sanctified in his mother’s womb when he was visited by His Lord, still tabernacled within the Blessed Mother. These three exceptions rather prove than contradict the rule that life comes through death, spirituality through mortification, and the saving of the soul in eternity through the losing of it in time.”[2]
It was Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes, the distinguished Boston physician and father of Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., Justice of the United States Supreme Court who wrote:
“So far as I have observed persons nearing the end of life, the Roman Catholics understand the business of dying better than Protestants. They have an expert by them, armed with spiritual specifics, in which they both, patient and priestly ministrant, place implicit trust. Confession, the Eucharist, Extreme Unction, these all inspire a confidence, which, without this symbolism, is too apt to be wanting in over sensitive natures… I have seen a good many Roman Catholics on their dying beds; and it has always appeared to me that they accept the inevitable with a composure which showed that their belief, whether or not the best to live by, was a better one to die by” (Over the Teacups [1891]).
We will go to Christ, the Giver of Life, and ask Him for the life that never ends, life everlasting. Pray for a happy death; pray for those who have already died. We will accept death from God wherever, whenever, and however He decides. That is one of the best prayers and penances we can offer to the Almighty.
Above all we will occasionally bring home to ourselves the vital, sobering, balancing thought that we must die, but that we will rise again, with Christ whom we have tried to love and serve. Let the dance of death go on. We, the followers of Christ, are ready.
Msgr. Matthias Premm has these words of consolation,
“Consequently, the true Christian believer does not have any fear of death; his attitude is one of Christian hope. Saint Paul himself admitted: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain…. My desire is to depart and be with Christ, for that is far better.[3] “If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lords.”[4] This is the precise meaning of the familiar prayer: “Jesus, for you I live, and for you I die.”[5] Saint Francis of Assisi used to speak of death as his (beloved) brother, and as he lay dying, he began singing his song to the sun. A great Christian used to pray this prayer: “O God, let me take a fancy to death, make me greet death with reverence as my final opportunity to offer you the greatest sacrifice I can, the sacrifice of my life.” When the Little Flower [Saint Thérèse of Lisieux], was lying on her death bed, her confessor asked her if she was completely resigned to God’s will with respect to dying. This was her answer: “O Father, I don’t think that requires any more resignation than it does to die. And for me, dying will be a joy.”[6]
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Death is the whole goal of living; it is absolutely the most important moment of life, for on the way in which we perform this last act of life, our whole eternity depends.”[7]
“Death and eternity do not take away, they perfect.”[8]
Death in the Catechism of the Catholic Church
§1006 “It is in regard to death that man’s condition is most shrouded in doubt.” In a sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact “the wages of sin.” For those who die in Christ’s grace it is a participation in the death of the Lord, so that they can also share his Resurrection.
§1007 Death is the end of earthly life. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, death seems like the normal end of life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives: remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth… before the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
§1008 Death is a consequence of sin. The Church’s Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of the affirmations of Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the world on account of man’s sin. Even though man’s nature is mortal, God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. “Bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned” is thus “the last enemy” of man left to be conquered.
§1009 Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father’s will. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.
The Meaning of Christian Death
§1010 Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” “The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him.” What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already “died with Christ” sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ’s grace, physical death completes this “dying with Christ” and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act:
It is better for me to die in (eis) Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. Him it is I seek – who died for us. Him it is I desire – who rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth…. Let me receive pure light; when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man.
§1011 In death, God calls man to himself. Therefore, the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul’s: “My desire is to depart and be with Christ.” He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father, after the example of Christ:
My earthly desire has been crucified… there is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me: Come to the Father.
I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die. I am not dying; I am entering life.
§1012 The Christian vision of death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the Church:
Lord, for your faithful people life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.
§1013 Death is the end of man’s earthly pilgrimage, of the time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan, and to decide his ultimate destiny. When “the single course of our earthly life” is completed, we shall not return to other earthly lives: “It is appointed for men to die once.” There is no “reincarnation” after death.
§1014 The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray: “From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord”; to ask the Mother of God to intercede for us “at the hour of our death” in the Hail Mary; and to entrust ourselves to St. Joseph, the patron of a happy death.
Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience…. Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren’t fit to face death today, it’s very unlikely you will be tomorrow…. Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe on those who will die in mortal sin! Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy will, for the second death will not harm them.
[1] Sheen, Fulton J., Peace of Soul, (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co. Inc., 1949), p. 217.
[2] Ibid. pp. 228-229.
[3] Phil 1:21, 23.
[4] Rom 14:8.
[5] Attributed to Blessed Giulia Valle of Aosta, Italy, (1847 – 1916), a member of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Joan Antida Thouret.
[6] Premm, Msgr. Matthias, Dogmatic Theology for the Laity, (Staten Island, NJ: Alba House), 1967, p. 426.
[7] S.M.C., “The Dark Wheel” (New York: Catholic Family Book Club). 1962, p. 299.
[8] Ibid. p. 300.