A New View Of Death

Was it planned, or was it purely coincidental that I just talked about life, and now I'm going to write about death?

Albus Dumbledore once said, "After all, to the well-organized mind, death is but the next great adventure." The Roman Catholic Church agrees with him in saying that. Unless you are begging for ice water in Hell, we understand that death is the next great adventure, as you will ultimately end up in Heaven. In school, we studied the theology behind the afterlife, but how much class time was devoted to discussing the actual event -- death?

I've seemed to view death as an event that will happen in the future, and never looked at it as if it were coming tomorrow. "Live life as if you're going to die tomorrow," the old saying goes. But how many of us actually live our lives planning to die the next day? How many of us fall victim to those things that deter us from our Earthly journey -- the glorification of God? I'm talking about things such as the television, the Internet, sinful behaviors, et cetera. What would you do if you found out that you were going to die tomorrow, around 10PM. Would you spend your last hours playing flash games in cyberspace, or would you spend time with your family and pray?

I've noticed - and it's not particularly hard not to - that our modern day society is very different to that of the Early Church, in the sense of prayer life. Two thousand years ago, men did not know of things such as the Internet or the boob tube. Two thousand years ago, men's lives were also centered around prayer and around God. In the days of Christ, Christians lived and breathed their faith. Today, we're lucky if we can all get to church on Sunday. How many of us wake up in the morning and immediately pray in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritūs Sancti, surrendering everything we do, think, and say to God?

Yesterday, my friend's grandmother suddenly died. When my father told me of her passing, my immediate reaction was that he was kidding, but when I realized he wasn't, I was shocked out of words. This was a devout Catholic, who was in relatively good health (save for the blood clot that killed her), and she just died. It was truly a tragic event, and my prayers are with the family. If I learned anything, though, it is that we cannot take life for granted. We cannot live life thinking we have eternity to live, because death could come at any time. Death can sweep us off our feet at any moment, and if we are in a state of mortal sin, then we've chosen to turn away from God for eternity. But if we are in the state of grace, then there is hope that we will see the beatific vision.

I chose to use the "Still life with a skull" by Philippe de Champaigne as the photograph for this entry because it depicts a symbolic trio: life, death, and time. At the moment, we are living, but we can die at any given time. I'm going to live life planning to die tomorrow, but I will never forget to offer everything I do, think, and say to God.