An Unfair Test

Learning how to think about death in our culture

11/04/2024

Jn 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.”

One of our greatest dilemmas as a society is dealing with death. This dilemma about death was depicted dramatically in the movie “Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan.” In the beginning of the movie a captain-in-training, named Savvik, has to navigate the Kobiashi-Maru. The would-be captain confronts a no-win situation to either rescue survivors from a disabled ship and thereby violate Klingon airspace, or leave the survivors to their fate, which is morally unacceptable.

She decides to rescue them. But suddenly she finds herself face-to-face with three Klingon warships, and is hopelessly outmatched and her ship is destroyed. Afterwards, in the debriefing, Admiral Kirk talks to her and she comments: “I don’t believe this was a fair test of my command abilities.” Kirk asks, “And why not?” She continues: “Because there was no way to win.”

Kirk answers: “A no-win situation is a possibility every commander must face. Has that never occurred to you?” She replies coldly, “No sir. It has not.” Kirk keeps going: “How we deal with death is as least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn’t you say?” She states again stoically, “As I indicated, Admiral, that thought had not occurred to me.” Finally, Kirk smiles and finishes with, “Well, now you have something new to think about. Carry on.” Of course, the great irony is Kirk will face his own no-win situation by the end of the movie when his best friend Spock dies to save Kirk and the ship.

But our society is very much like Savvik: we do not know how to deal with death, we think it is "an unfair test." When we are young we believe we will never grow older and die. Why do we sell so much age-defying cosmetics in our culture? And then when we are old we want to rush head-long into the arms of death. I have an elderly friend who suffers from many ailments and prays God will take her home soon.

I remember Archbishop Fulton Sheen saying once that funeral directors dress up the deceased in the casket so beautifully that they promise “happiness in every box.” People often say to me, “I hope I go quickly, and preferably in my sleep.” Why? Because death is our great inescapable dilemma and we need to heed Admiral Kirk’s words to Savvik: “How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life.”

Most of the year we can put death on the back-burner and ignore it. But on November 2, the Church invites us to bring death out of the closet and put it front and center. In other words, the Church, like Admiral Kirk, wants to give us “something new to think about.” Today we commemorate – not celebrate which is what we usually say – All Souls Day. And the main message both the Scriptures and the sacraments teach us is that death is not the end of life, but in some ways, truly the beginning.

The Book of Wisdom reminds us: “The souls of the just [who have died] are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them.” That is, the dead may not be in our arms, but they are embraced warmly and lovingly in God’s arms. And in the gospel Jesus assures us that he has come to offer us eternal life. Why? Because he says: “I shall raise him on the last day.” You see, Jesus has come not only to save our souls but also to save our bodies.

On the last day of resurrection, the final and eternal Easter Sunday, our bodies will be raised from the graves and glorified like Jesus’ Body was on that first Easter Sunday 2,000 years ago. In other words, only our faith can penetrate into the great mystery of death that our society struggles helplessly with. We tend to either exaggerate death and try to avoid it at all costs, or we run toward death and try to get it over with as quickly as we can.

The Christian attitude to death is all together different. Like Admiral Kirk said, “How we [Christians] deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life.” And we believe that Jesus has dealt death a mortal blow. And therefore the Church invites us to pray for a happy death, that is, to die in the state of grace. To put it grammatically, Jesus’ resurrection has changed death from a period at the end of the sentence of life into a comma. And so maybe “now we have something new to think about. Carry on.”

Praised be Jesus Christ!