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Beginning this month, a new series of articles will appear in our newspaper to offer catechesis and formation concerning end of life decisions, dying, death, funerals, and burial of the dead from our Catholic perspective.
No one easily faces these issues because they remind us of our mortality and fragility, but our faith in Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, helps us understand how our own death, ending an earthly existence lived out in faith, hope, and charity, becomes the sacred passage to eternal joy in the Kingdom of Heaven.
The Church encourages us to prepare for death, most importantly on the spiritual plane of being ready to meet the Lord with our interior house in order, but also on the practical level of health decisions, an updated will, funeral and burial plans, and the dispersal of possessions.Article series
I am grateful to Damian Lenshek, who manages our diocesan cemeteries and is a support to our parish cemeteries, who is guiding this awareness campaign to help everyone understand and embrace God’s vision and hope for us as we approach the vast mystery of death and dying.
Damian will be offering articles on the Catholic vision of death, the liturgy and rites of Christian funeral and burial, questions concerning cremation and the proper way to reverence the ashes of a loved one, and many topics germane to this broad topic.
Patrick Gorman who heads our Prayer and Worship Office will be assisting in this effort.
I am grateful to Fr. Joseph Baker, a priest of our diocese who has an advanced theology degree in medical ethics from Rome, who will be contributing articles on the technical questions surrounding end of life issues, what actions are ethically proper and which ones are not, the challenges of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and the importance of clarity regarding durable power of attorney documents.
I encourage you to read these articles to gain greater knowledge and insight about these significant realities which we must all face.
Preparing for our final illness and death is an act of love to our loved ones, so that they do not need to face enormous stress because we failed to do our part in preparing for our inevitable passage from this world.
Death is not the end
We all fear death because the unknown can terrify us.
Death is the ultimate mystery and the absolutely fundamental fact of our earthly existence.
As humans, we have the conscious awareness from an early age that one day we will stop breathing, turn cold, and die.
This truth is the frame of reference which both illuminates and limits our brief time here.
Because Jesus died and rose from the dead, we have profound hope that, if we are faithful to the Lord in this age, believing in Him and trusting His mercy, practicing our faith and sincerely seeking holiness, the risen One will lead us through the dark valley of death into the glory of eternal life.
If we truly live and believe this fundamental truth of our faith, death is not the worst thing to befall us.
At the end, we do not surrender to a nameless darkness nor do we simply fade out of existence into nothingness; we ultimately fall into the heart and hands of our beloved Savior, Jesus Christ.
The truth revealed by Christ, crucified and risen, forms every aspect of our human life.
If we gain the victory over the power of sin and death through the resurrection of Jesus, if we are saved in our human flesh and our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, if both life and death are gifts from God to lead us into an eternal relationship with Him, then our dying, our funeral, and our burial must reflect these fundamental convictions.
Life as a gift from God
Since life is a gift from God, we do not have the right to end the life of another or our own, even in moments of great suffering and pain.
On the one hand, we are not obliged to employ extraordinary means to sustain life, but we cannot use extraordinary means to end it either.
Suffering embraced in union with Christ on the cross becomes redemptive and powerful, as death itself takes on a profoundly spiritual meaning.
A Mass of Christian Burial focuses on the victory of Christ over death and allows grieving loved ones to express their sorrow through prayer and offer the most efficacious gift we can possibly bestow on our beloved dead: the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass.
Even apart from COVID, too often these days, there is no funeral at all or simply a celebration of life with no reference to the transcendent meaning of our loved one’s passing.
More people choose cremation over the burial of the body.
The Church sanctions cremation, but prefers that the body be present for the funeral Mass if possible and insists that the ashes should be properly buried in consecrated ground.
This profound respect for the human body is a reflection of our nature as an incarnate spirit — soul and body.
Damian Lenshek and Fr. Joseph Baker will cover topics such as these with greater depth than I have explored here.
I bring them up to give you some examples of how our faith shapes our practical decisions surrounding death and dying and to encourage you to read and study the forthcoming articles which will help us to more profoundly appreciate the mystery and gift of life and death, as the Lord has revealed them to us.