One of the most challenging aspects of being a parish priest is coming up with something new to say to the congregation every Sunday. (I have heard, however, that we are really repeating: “God is Love,” in a thousand different ways.)
“In our human condition touched by sin, death presents a certain dark side which cannot but bring sadness and fear. How could it be otherwise? We have been made for life, whereas death – as Scripture tells us from its very first pages (cf. Gen. 2-3) – was not part of God’s original plan but came about as a consequence of sin, as a result of “the devil’s envy” (Wis 2:24). It is thus understandable why, when faced with this dark reality, a person instinctively rebels. In this regard it is significant that Jesus, “who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin” (Heb 4:15), also experienced fear in the face of death: “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me” (Mt 26:39). How can we forget his tears at the tomb of his friend Lazarus, despite the fact that he was about to raise him from the dead (cf. Jn 11:35)?
However rationally comprehensible death may be from a biological standpoint, it is not possible to experience it as something “natural.” This would contradict a person’s deepest instincts. As the Council observed: “It is in the face of death that the riddle of human existence becomes most acute. Not only is a person tormented by pain and by the advancing deterioration of his or her body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual extinction.” This anguish would indeed be inconsolable were death complete destruction, the end of everything. Death thus forces men and women to ask themselves fundamental questions about the meaning of life itself. What is on the other side of the shadowy wall of death? Does death represent the definitive end of life or does something lie beyond it?