A Leaven In The World . . . Lent: Invitation To Contemplate Death
By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK
We contemplate the death of Christ at every Mass before receiving His risen Body and Blood in the Holy Eucharist. We know and profess this to be true. Faith can and must grow, however. Perhaps nothing spurs us to lean on the Lord through our faith as much as accepting in an ever deeper way the fact of our own death — which indeed will happen one day; we just do not know when.
The season of Lent leads to the victory of Resurrection and life at Easter, but it is the death of the Lord which makes that possible. We focus upon His self-offering on the cross more during this most important penitential season than at any other time during the year.
Our contemplation of His death is not truly life-changing unless it is accompanied by the acceptance and surrender to the fact that one day we too shall die.
Nothing assists one to contemplate one’s own death perhaps so well as making funeral arrangements for someone else.
The mother of someone I know well has Alzheimer’s and the family is planning to admit her to care at a home with religious sisters soon. The sisters require that funeral arrangements be completed prior to admission. Family members visited the funeral home and chose the casket and vault, provided information, and prepaid for the funeral. All that remains is to choose the headstone.
Underlying the effort of choosing between the various options of caskets and vaults, discussing the services and fees of picking up the body at death and preparing the remains for burial, embalming, washing and clothing, the arranging of the hair and the appearance of the loved one, is a deeper acknowledgment of death as a personal reality touching every human person without exception.
Death circumscribes the whole of humanity. It also lays a claim on me. Grappling with and confronting any pretense on my part that I am in any way an exception to this fact carries with it implications that run through the whole of my being, thinking, acting, and choices.
Contemplation of the fact of my own death ultimately confers an opportunity: the encounter in an even deeper way with the reality of faith itself. The stripping away of every other consideration made possible by the fact of my own death enables the stark realization of my own belief, or not, in One who so truly lives as to never die. That is, of One who so lives as to be Life itself and thus able to restore to life those who do die, as must we all in this vale of tears.
Who is the Living One? And do I believe, truly believe, in Him? This is the journey and challenge posed by Lent.
Our growth in faith is perhaps measured by no other factor as much as our encounter with death throughout the whole span of life.
We never contemplate another’s death without at some level accepting the fact of our own demise. Why that changes through life has more to do with the wisdom made possible by age than by the loss of youth with its seemingly boundless life and abundant energy.
When we are young death seems a distant thing, not really touching us at some deep level. The death of a grandparent is a sadness, but seems so necessary as to discourage much mourning.
I used to think an exotic conception of death was a result of the decreased probability of dying young, and it may in part be true. The young are generally healthier than the elderly, and for that reason do not accept the fact that death can touch them as readily or immediately as it does those who are advanced in years.
No one lives here forever, we always know at some level, and those who have lived longest are always more likely to pass through the door of death sooner than others. Our own personal conviction of death, however, can be masked by patterns of behavior and attempted evasion by our use or abuse of various things. Such choices can involve sin.
Lack of acceptance of death is often at the root of an unsuccessful struggle against patterns of and addictions to sin. A ricocheting effect can result with a person struggling against sin in order to respond to the requirements of faith, while falling back into sin because of an inability to accept and live every day with the fact of death.
Lent invites us to get this precedence corrected if we have failed thus far to do so. Our Friday prayers of the Stations of the Cross, our fast and our abstinence, particularly on Fridays, from the consuming of flesh meat, all invite us to touch the sure and certain reality of our own demise in and through the holy and saving death of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ on a Friday.
We affirm that He alone is the Living One and can alone grant a share in new life to us and to all who labor and struggle under the shroud of death and dying.
And in so doing we find purpose and meaning, and even hope, in our own death so united by faith and grace to His. And thus is proposed to us our own challenge to grow in holiness.
Motivation to shun unholy choices strengthens through virtue as the goal of our longing shines more clearly in view. The mists of unbelief clear away and dissipate as our vision beholds the Lord more honestly, radically absent useless crutches and diabolic deceptions.
Grace is His gift of life. Our holiness is a measure of our share more and more in grace.
Death is an encounter with God. Facing the fact of my own death invites me to contemplate my meeting with the Lord, which will take place only a matter of years from now. Faith in Him is itself a preparation for that moment. Faith invites us to choose love rather than fear.
Will the revelation beyond the moment of my death be judgment or the fulfillment of mercy? My life now, my faith now, will decide.
All of our thoughts and actions shot through with the reality of coming death are all the more life-giving because, for all that, redolent with holiness of life. Accept the invitation of our annual Lent to meditate on a holy death for love of self, as urged by Love Himself, and therefore all the more so for love of the One Who Is Life Everlasting.
Thank you for reading and praised be Jesus Christ, now and forever.
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