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My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
It is widely acknowledged that we are now living in a post-Christian culture. This adversely affects what is being taught in public schools and in the anti-Christian values often being espoused and promoted in our secular culture. Sometimes these values that are contrary to Christianity are subtle and seep into popular attitudes without giving them much thought. A prime example of this attitudinal shift is how secular people deal with death, or perhaps more accurately, how they avoid dealing with death.
Our culture’s discomfort with death can be seen in recent shifts in vocabulary about death. Instead of simply saying someone “has died,” people say that a deceased person “is no longer with us” or “has departed” or “passed away.” Instead of “funerals,” there are “celebrations of life.” Some “funeral homes” now prefer to be called “life celebration homes.” Instead of “cemeteries” there are “memorial gardens.”
Recently I came across an obituary online that said, “As we bid [the deceased] farewell, let us not mourn the absence of his physical form, but rather celebrate the essence of his spirit that lingers in the spaces between moments. For [the deceased] is not truly gone, but merely transformed, his energy intertwined with the fabric of the universe itself, forever dancing among the stars.” Very poetic, but not very Christian in its belief about life after death. I certainly hope that when I die, I will go to heaven rather than lingering “in the spaces between moments … intertwined with the fabric of the universe itself, forever dancing among the stars”!
As we approach the month of November, traditionally dedicated to praying for the dead, particularly for the souls in purgatory on All Souls Day, Nov. 2nd, it would be good for us to review what the Catholic Church teaches about death and what Christians believe about life after death.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that every human being is a “unity of body and soul” and that “every spiritual soul is created immediately by God … and also that it is immortal: it does not perish when it separates from the body at death, and it will be reunited with the body at the final Resurrection” (CCC 366). Each soul is unique. There is no reincarnation.
In the Profession of Faith that Catholics profess during Mass on Sundays and Solemnities, we say that we “look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” Thus, the Catechism explains, “We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives forever, so after death the righteous will live forever with the risen Christ and He will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like His own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity” (CCC 989).
At the very moment of one’s death, there is “a particular judgment that refers his life to Christ: either entrance into the blessedness of heaven — through a purification [called purgatory] or immediately — or immediate and everlasting damnation” (CCC 1022). This “everlasting damnation” is known as hell.
“The Last Judgment will come when Christ returns in glory. Only the Father knows the day and the hour; only He determines the moment of its coming. Then through His Son Jesus Christ He will pronounce the final word on all history. … The Last Judgment will reveal that God’s justice triumphs over all the injustices committed by His creatures and that God’s love is stronger than death” (CCC 1040).
“The Church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the 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” (CCC 1014).
Our Christian faith about eternal life after earthly death has implications for our funeral rituals and liturgical practices, which we will look at more closely in the weeks ahead so that we can have a greater appreciation for the richness of our prayers for the dead.
May God give us this grace. Amen.