Death: Link between Life Here and Life Hereafter
Most valuable Land:
In German, cemetery is called Friedhof, the house of peace. It is the abode of those who have completed their race in life and rest a while till we all would meet in the presence of the Lord of Creation. Will you believe if someone tells you that the cemetery is the most valuable real estate in the world? H. Todd in his book Die Empty says:
The most valuable land in the world is the graveyard. In the graveyard are buried all of the unwritten novels, never-launched businesses, unreconciled relationships, and all of the other things that people thought, ‘I’ll get around to that tomorrow.’ One day, however, their tomorrows ran out.[1]
The moral of this quote is: do not go to your grave and carry inside you the best that you have – Instead choose to die empty. Exhaust yourself in service to others while alive, then God will fill you, at death, with His glory for all eternity.
Legends and Myths about River of Death:
We reflect today on those who have gone ahead to meet and to be with the Lord. It is the Christian faith that life is not destroyed in death but it is transformed for the better. In so many religious and ancient cultures there is a belief that there flows a river between the living and the dead. At death one passes from the world of the living to the world of eternity. Crossing the river at the time of death, as part of the journey to another world, is a common part of the symbolic passage that people have seen as part of one’s journey after death. In the Epic of Gilgamesh, the hero of the Mesopotamian mythology encounters a boatman who ferries him across the waters of death as he seeks the secret of immortality.[2] When the Egyptian Pharaohs died and buried, servants, horses, and pets were buried along with the deceased – Generous amount of jewels and money were buried too – All for the journey across and beyond the River of Death. As Christians we believe in the flow of the River of Life beyond death with life-giving eternal water and its current carry us to the eternal destination, namely, the House of the Lord.
Stages of Grief:
When someone dear to us dies, it is difficult to accept the fact – We may accept it intellectually but emotionally it takes time. We go through five stages in grieving over the dead:[3]
- First we react emotionally, not accepting the death of the dear one. But the reality prepares us to survive the emotional pain. This stage prevents us from being overwhelmed by what has happened as tragic and unexpected event.
- Then, anger swells within us that someone dear to us is taken away from us. Though we might feel helpless, isolated, and lonely, we begin to realize our connection with the dead ones to offer comfort and reassurance.
- Next, we begin to bargain with God first and then with ourselves. We implore with God to be kind and merciful to the dead and at the same time we begin, though unconsciously, to explore the possibility of our own survival and doing further in this world of the living. In this stage we move over from a feeling of helplessness to the realm of hope for the future.
- But depression is unavoidable phase in the grieving process. As we continue to feel the loss of our beloved ones, panic subsides, emotional fog begins to clear, and we begin to feel the loss more present and unavoidable. We begin to withdraw within.
- Finally, we begin to accept emotionally as well the loss of our dear ones. Not that we no longer feel the pain of loss but we begin to be more aware of the reality in our situation and we are slowly exiting the emotional struggle in order to start all over again. Sadness and regret might continue to be present but the emotional survival tactics of denial, bargaining, and anger recedes and the hope of a new beginning springs in.
Our turning to God in our helplessness, begins to blossom as hope in ourselves that we would survive and would go forward in life with hope.
Death as connecting link between Here and Hereafter:
(From the readings of today we understand that) Death is a passage from life here on earth to life hereafter. Death is a link connecting what we see and experience now with what we hope for beyond death. We believe that we are created in the image and likeness of God (Gn 1:27); we believe that God sent his only Son to save us (Jn 3:17); and we believe that Christ has transformed our death into life on the cross. When the friends of Jesus went to his tomb, they were surprised by the empty tomb and the angels told them: Why do you look for the living among the dead (Jn 24:5)? So, death for us is a message of hope and eternal life.
In death, past, present, and future converge. The trust of the past and the hope of the future conglomerate in the present life of love and service. The Book of Wisdom states: “The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment will ever touch them… Those who trust in Him will understand truth, and the faithful will abide with Him in love, because grace and mercy are upon his elect, and He watches over His holy ones” (Wis 3: 1 & 9). Paul, in his sharing with the Romans, speaks of God’s infinite and mad love for His people. He says that God’s love has been poured into our hearts and He has justified us through reconciliation (Rom 5: 5 & 11). And Jesus assures us of our future. He says that He will not lose any that the Father has entrusted to his care and protection, for it is the will of the Father that whoever believes in Jesus will have eternal life and they will be raised on the last day (Jn 6:39-40). So, we might call death as the incubation stage between two phases of life, namely, the present finite life and the future infinite glory. And death will hatch the dead for eternal life. Thus, the dead give us hope of merging with God; and death is the cocoon which transforms the present limited life into eternal colourful butterfly life. A butterfly has only 14 days to live, still it flies joyfully, capturing many hearts. It is not how long we live but how we live it, is what matters most.
The Dead are alive:
When we think of our dead, we are at times filled with sadness. But we should feel and realize that they live in our memory and feeling – The words of wisdom they spoke to us; the numerous good examples they have given us; and so many lessons that they taught us for our well being, are the continuing remnants of them ever green in our memory – In this sense, they are alive and we want to keep the living examples of our beloved ones. Now, after death, they have become hybrid people: On the one hand they carry ourselves in them and on the other they also now carry part of God as they rest in His eternal peace and light. Their past life and our future hope merge in their present state of death bringing in hope.
As disciples of Christ, who died but rose again, we live in the memory of our dead but at the same time we draw confidence, courage, and energy to go forward in life as they had shown the way of fullness of life. As Christians, we go forth awaiting the day of reunion when we shall meet them face to face. This is our faith and this is our proclamation. The dead are alive in us so far we continue to live their lives of hope. May all our dead glow in the eternal peace and joy of Christ, the Lord of the Living and the Dead.
Francis P Xavier SJ
02Nov2022
[1] H. Todd, Die Empty, Portfolio, London, 2015.
[2] https://heritageofjapan.wordpress.com/2013/01/20/exploring-the-river-of-the-dead-and-rivers-of-death-and-disease-ideas-and-the-origins-of-river-expulsion-practices/
[3] https://www.verywellmind.com/five-stages-of-grief-4175361