Death - man's ultimate accomplishment

Death..... and then?

Death is not a   fulfillment  of what we expect from life. The solution  is found in life beyond death, in redemption. But what does faith say about man's future?  Christ predicts: "I am the  resurrection  and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die." (John 11,25; Luke 23,43).  Although Saint Paul knows how cruelly  death ravages life and how brutally it destroys hopes, plans and communities,  for him, dying is no grievous departure, but a coming-home: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ"  (Philippians 1,23; 2 Cor 5,8). For the believer, death is not a senseless, irrevocable end but a new beginning. As Christ came back from death so will we continue to live with Him. (1 Thes 4,13)

Death - man's ultimate accomplishment

On his first  day of school,  a little boy is hit by a car and dies on the way to the hospital. Our impression is that this young human life was destroyed without blooming and coming to maturity. There is something devastating in this unfinished, violent ending of a life. It shows that death does not necessarily strike a man at the moment where he is inwardly prepared to conclude his life.

But are things different at the death of an adult?  What have we done with all our questions and doubts? Did we finish working on them? Often, even adults do not have the time to examine and  judge their lives. Sometimes, everything  we  love must  be  taken  away from us,  all our masks have to be taken off, and all our roles have to come to an end so that we can see what is ultimately important.

There are always new books with reports about clinically  dead persons and what they have experienced at death and thereafter. Dying is different from the experience of all those  standing around.  Evidently, life does not merely fade away but  the dying  perceive much more of what surrounds them than their outer appearance seems to suggest.

In addition,  many tell us that they had an intensive global view of their past life at the moment of their  "departure";&nb sp; everything  could  be seen very clearly.  This experience proves nothing,  but is surprisingly in line with the considerations and convictions of some theologians in recent times.

Death is part of our life and  dying  is not only a matter of a moment but also a process. Whoever goes through this process has made the unique experience of dying  ahead  of  all  living  human  beings.  Could  this  not  be  the  decisive  life experience?  Death  would then bring any belated development to maturity: a child grows up,  an adult sheds whatever is still unfinished and imperfect.  Mentally retarded  and  psychologically disturbed persons, even the unborn child, - all of them  would  then have  the possibility to bring their human life to a decision and to maturity in this process of dying.