Death Dealing

Meditating on the scriptures to face death

11/02/2019

John 6:37-40 Jesus said to the crowds: "Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day."

We all deal with death in different ways. Some ways are good, others are better, and some are best, and some ways are not good at all. Let me give you some examples. Last Sunday I received a call to go to Mercy Hospital Emergency Room. A little girl named Millie Giana, who was only 5 years old, had died from pneumonia. By the time I arrived, the family was gone but the grandmother was sitting next to Millie’s bed and caressing her cheeks. The little girl was strikingly beautiful, and I wondered if she resembled the daughter of Jairus in Mark 5, whom Jesus raised from the dead. The grandmother and I recited the prayers called “Commendation of the Dying.” I was so sad to leave the grandmother and granddaughter there in the ER, but what else could I do? I prayed the rosary for them and we have prayed for Millie at Mass. That’s one way to deal with death: prayerfully.

                I’ll never forget something Msgr. Hebert (my first pastor) said upon returning from Baptist Hospital in Little Rock. He had just anointed someone in ICU, who was hooked up to numerous tubes and medical devices all keeping him alive. Msgr. Hebert said stoically: “John, if I’m ever in that situation, I want you to anoint me, give me the Apostolic Pardon, and then as you leave the room, kick the plug out of the wall.” As you know Catholics are not required to resort to extraordinary means of life support, so Msgr. Hebert was making a morally laudable request. That’s another way to deal with death: get ready spiritually and then get heck the out of here.

Last week Fr. Matt Garrison from Sacred Heart in Barling gave a talk on funeral planning at “Pints with a Priest.” The talk was titled: “Putting Fun back in Funerals.” He basically outlined the do’s and don’t’s of a Catholic funeral Mass, such as the legitimacy of having the body cremated. At the end, he helped people to actually plan their funeral Mass. And that’s another way of dealing with death: preplanning.

Perhaps the best way to deal with death, however, is meditating on the sacred scriptures. The bible is a Christian’s compass to navigate this world and find our way home to heaven. The Mass of November 2, the Commemoration of All Souls, offers us great scriptures to help us wrestle with our great enemy, Death. Wisdom 3 consoles us with the words: “The souls of the just are in the hand of God.” So, we can pray with confidence that 5 year-old Millie sits smiling in the hand of God today. Psalm 23 is familiar to everyone, which describes the Good Shepherd, who leads us – his sheep – to verdant pastures, which ultimately turn out to be Paradise. The final verse reads: “And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for years to come.”

Two options for the New Testament epistles are taken from Romans. In Romans 5 we read: “God proves his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us.” That is, Jesus’ death sheds new light on our own death. We see that death is not the last word on life. Death is not a period at the end of the sentence of life, but only a comma. Romans 6 sheds an even brighter light by bringing in baptism. Have you noticed how I always quote Romans 6 at every funeral as I sprinkle the casket with holy water, a sign of baptism? Paul teaches in Romans 6: “If, then, we have died with Christ [by baptism], we believe that we shall also live with him.” In other words, baptism throws open the doors of Paradise for us believers.

But there are no better words in the whole bible, though, than those that fall from the lips of our Lord, as for instance, in John 6. Jesus assures us: “That everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him on the last day.” We hear the powerful promise of the only One who did hand-to-hand combat with Death and came out victorious. On the Cross it was not Jesus who died, but rather Death who died, because Jesus is alive and lives forever. The best way to deal with death, therefore, is to incorporate ourselves into Jesus’ own death and resurrection, not just at the end of our natural life, but every day.

Finally, may I suggest one way we should not deal with death, namely, we should not ignore it, or pretend like it is no big deal. Our modern culture has grown increasingly desensitized to death. Whether it is abortion, or euthanasia, or suicide, or mass shootings, or suicide bombers, death feels like no big deal. Perhaps that’s our great Enemy’s ultimate weapon: to make us ignore him or to take him lightly as no enemy at all. That would be the worst way to deal with death because it would make a mockery of our Lord’s saving death on the Cross. It would mean that Christ was crucified for nothing.

How do we deal with death? We can laugh at death, we can cry at death, but please do not ignore death or pretend like he’s no big deal. Why? Because that’s how in the end death wins.

Praised be Jesus Christ!