Bellarmine University
“We All Have To Go Sometime”
Rev. Ronald Knott
November 2, 2014
This is the will of my Father, that everyone
who believes in me may have eternal life,
and I shall raise him up on the last day.
John 6:40
Woody Allen has a lot a funny things to say about death, but one of my favorites is this one: “I know everybody dies, but I’m still hoping an exception will be made in my case!” In another place he says, “I don’t mind dying. I just don’t want to be there when it happens.” Most of us, especially when we are young, tend to think of death as an old people’s disease. But once in a while something will happen that brings the possibility of death home to us. Since I have been here, we have students who have died from a shooting, a drowning and car wrecks for example. At the Blue Christmas Mass here in this chapel, last Christmas eve, three of the first people down the hill had children who had died from suicide. At the seminary, one of my students was killed instantly a few days after his ordination to the priesthood. Death is not just for old people. The reality is that every one of us in here will die sooner or later and there are no exceptions.
Every year, in the month of November when the days grow dark and nature seems to go through its annual death cycle, the church presents us a series of Sunday readings that rub our noses in this reality so that we will look at it, whether it is comfortable or not, reminding us believers that death, rather than being morbid, is actually part of life. For believers, life does not end in death, life simply changes from one level of living to another level of living.
November begins with the Feast of All Saints, yesterday, when we celebrate the nameless billions of holy people who have made it to life on the other side, life with God in heaven. It is immediately followed today by a day of prayer for those who have died, but who are being purified in preparation to enter into heaven. All Souls Day rarely falls on Sunday, as it does today, but when it does it gives us an opportunity to think about something that we don’t normally like to think about, our own deaths, and to pray for our family, friends and fellow believers who have gone before us.
This day raises all kinds of questions, more questions than I can answer, but I will make an attempt to say a few words about some of the big questions it raises. I will present a simple summary. If you want to go deeper into these questions, I suggest you take some theology courses here at Bellarmine or ask Melanie for a reading list of books - like the Catechism.
The following comments must be placed in the context that what awaits us after death is unknowable and anything we say about it is in the language of poetry, not the language of science. Science is good, but science isn’t everything. But, surely, we all know that there are realities in this life, such as faith, hope and love, that cannot be measured and weighed or whose existence cannot be proven with material evidence. As St. Paul says, “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor human heart conceived, what God has prepared for those who love him.”
(1) The first thing we celebrate today is the fact that God loves every human being unconditionally, that God asks us simply to accept that love and to open our arms to the wonderful things God has in store for us in the life we will have on the other side of this life. If we accept this love, we have nothing to fear and everything to look forward to! The “good news” is that we need not tremble with dread when we think about death, but simply “wait in joyful hope” as we pray at every Mass, right after the Lord’s Prayer. That wonderful life, that eternally wonderful life, is what we call “heaven.” Heaven, in the end, is not something we earn, it is simply a gift waiting to be accepted. It is not our doing, but God’s gift for the taking, pure and simple. We can’t prove it. We accept it on the word of Jesus, God who became human flesh.
(2) The second thing we celebrate today is “the communion of saints.” Some Christian churches have a very individualistic approach to religion, as summarized in an old country song, “Me and Jesus got a good thing goin’” or the bumper sticker that reads, “I’m saved. Sorry about you!” The Catholic understanding, very close to the ancient Jewish understanding, is that we are family, we are the people of God, “if one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” We must help, and be helped by, others. Even when we die, we remain part of the same family of faith. The idea that those who have died and gone to heaven can help us, by their prayers, on our journey here on earth is a very ancient belief, as well as those who are being purified on their way to heaven can be helped by our prayers. The Old Testament Second Book of Maccabeees talks about praying for the dead. From the beginning, the Church has honored the memory of the dead and prayed for them, especially at the Eucharist. We see inscriptions about this on the walls of the catacombs, those ancient graveyards in Rome. We pray for those who have died and are now going through their final purification for entry into heaven.
We call it “purgatory.” Again, because the traditional imagery used to talk about this purification has been so simplistic, many have dismissed its reality. The imagery of purgatory as a “place” where we go for a certain “time” to be purified by “fire” has led simple minds to conclude that purgatory is merely “hell for a short time,” a “vast torture chamber where God gets even with us.” No, it is really a mysterious process of facing our own truth and growing in love. If there is any suffering, it is the clear realization of how much God has loved us and how shoddily we responded to that love in our lives. If it is painful, I believe it is like the pain of total embarrassment in front of a loved one. Purgation is a time of growing in love, not some “mini-hell” or “torture chamber where God gets even with us.” The experience of “purgatory” may be instantaneous as the loving gaze of God cleans away all our sins and imperfections so that we can hold his total love. Because we are connected across death, our prayers can help those who have died as they are purified for heaven.
(3) The third thing this day brings up is the idea of “hell.” Even though it is God’s will that all people be saved, he does not force his love onto us. Even though I believe, personally, it is rare, it is possible to freely, knowingly and fully reject God’s love. Hell, then, is complete alienation, no love, no sympathy, no sense of companionship, only emptiness and hatred – of oneself, of the other damned, of all creation, of God. Hell, then, is that self-imposed isolation and refusal to be loved and forgiven. Those who choose this cannot be helped, by us or by God.
The best way to prepare for death is not to focus on death, but to focus on living well, living with your bags packed and ready to go, waiting in joyful hope for the unimaginable great things God has in store for those who love him. The best way to prepare for death is to let ourselves be loved by God and to love God and all people as best we can. Then we have nothing to be afraid of. On the contrary, we have everything to look forward to.
In the meantime, let us pray for those who have gone before us (our family members, our friends and all those who have accepted God’s love in whatever way they were able, even if imperfect) and now are being “cleaned up,” “made pure,” and “de-sinned” for their meeting with God, face to face!
(This is my feeble attempt to explain some pretty deep realities in a very short time to people who may not be steeped in theology. Please excuse any defects or limitations!)
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