Remember Death
July 24, 1994
Br. John Raymond
An important topic for Christian meditation is what are called
the Four Last Things: Death, Judgment, Heaven and Hell. I believe
the first, death, is a very unpopular topic these days. Our society
greatly encourages us to forget this reality of life. We go so far
as to make death look pretty. At a wake one is sure to hear the
comment, "He or she looks so good." I sure hope I don't look better
dead than alive!
Death has become a topic that must be avoided. Other cultures do
not have such a negative attitude toward it. People are allowed to
die at home. The wake is held in the home. Death is seen as part of
life. Why do we fear someone's death? I think it is because their
death is a reminder to us of our own. And this reminder, far from
being a negative experience, has been a great source of conversion
throughout the centuries. Recently an older man visited who was
pursuing a religious vocation that he had been putting off for
years. What motivated him to begin now? His brother's recent death.
So death can be a great source or motivation for us to "get our
act together." I will never forget the time I spent the whole night
in the hospital morgue - no I wasn't dead. I was working midnight's
waxing floors. I had prayed to the Lord to help me become more
fervent in my Christian life. Well, the prayer was answered - not in
the way I suspected. I was assigned to do the floor in the morgue
refrigerator, all alone, my only company being about twenty dead
bodies. I must say that I worked fast that night. I was consoled to
see that someone had glued a little image of the Sacred Heart of
Jesus to the wall. So I guess I really wasn't alone. But this
experience of first hand witness of death encouraged me to take my
own life more seriously.
Although we act as if we are going to live forever death is
something we have to prepare for. I remember a former policeman
telling me a tragic story. His partner was shot and as they rushed
him to the hospital his dying words were, "O God not now." Our Lord
warned us to stay awake for we do not know when He will be coming
for us. I know in my own life the few times I could have died came
as a surprise to me.
There is a new psychological theory about stages one goes through
when dying. I must say a Christian cannot agree with at least one of
these stages. They say a person goes through a so-called "normal"
stage of blaming or becoming angry with God. Far from such an
attitude the Christian, in imitation of Our Lord, must accept death
with resignation. Jesus has transformed death, which was a result of
sin and not what God originally intended, into a redemptive and
meritorious event. It is a source of expiation for our own sins.
Also our death united with the sufferings and death of Jesus becomes
redemptive for others. There is the true story of a woman who fell
onto a subway track and couldn't get out. She hadn't lived the best
of lives but as she saw the subway train approaching she made a
perfect act of resignation to death. She went straight to heaven, as
was revealed to another person.
I know people who look forward to death, not as an escape, but
because they really love God and want to be with Him. I know a
Filipino family that celebrated during their mother's death - no
they weren't happy to get rid of her. They knew their mother was a
saint. (In fact a person was physically healed at her funeral.)
There's an old saying, "Remember death." If only we meditated on,
prayed about, and accepted the fact of death how different our lives
might be! "O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your
sting? . . . But thanks be to God who has given us the victory
through Our Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. 15: 55, 57)