Snapshot: Taking Death Seriously (#149)

Snapshot: Taking Death Seriously

[00:00:00] Intro

If you ache for truth, goodness, and beauty, If you're hungry for a Christianity with substance and strength, if you long for a faith that's big and bold and biblical and all about Jesus Christ, if you're inspired by the idea of one church that has spanned twenty centuries, twenty four time zones, and two hemispheres, enfolding every race, nation, and language, then you're considering Catholicism.

Greg: Hi, this is Greg. I'm recording and releasing this just a few hours before I head over to the parish for our celebration of the All Souls Day Mass. Now, In the Catholic Church, that's part of a three day focus on death and the dead.

We have All Saints Eve on October 31, [00:01:00] or Halloween. We have the Solemnity Mass of All Saints Day on November 1. And we have All Souls Day... On November 2. Now, real quick, because the purpose of this snapshot isn't to unpack all of that, but All Saints celebrates those who have died and gone to heaven, where they are worshipping and fellowshipping in the presence of the Holy Trinity. And on All Souls, we pray for those who have died in faith, but have not yet progressed fully to heaven. In The words of the Book of Revelation, they are washing their robes so that they may enter the new Jerusalem. Doing penance in purgatory. 

No, today I just want to quickly reflect on something a bit wider: how Catholicism takes death, well, seriously. Catholicism offers a coherent understanding of what death is, what happens to people when they die, and it offers sound biblical practices [00:02:00] that accompany us through life in anticipation of our death and for when we die and well, for those who are left behind,

I think Catholicism takes death seriously, like, like a grown up mature religion should. Which, honestly, we ought to do because what's more inevitable and serious than death? 

 But today we live in a culture that doesn't take death seriously. America, Canada, Western Europe, there's no really coherent understanding of the subject. You know, what happens when we die? How should we approach it? What should we do when someone we love dies?

See, all of this today has become individualized. So, when I was a Protestant evangelical pastor, it was my, I don't want to say responsibility, but really my privilege to occasionally be with people as they were dying, or to [00:03:00] plan and officiate funerals and memorial services, or to counsel people who had lost a loved one. Or to simply answer questions like, where do people go when they die?

But in my experience over the last, say, 40 years, I think it's become almost impossible to have any kind of a really coherent conversation about any of that, because there aren't any consistent beliefs. Today in America, Canada, Western Europe, everyone sort of makes up their own individual view on death, the afterlife, how to approach it, how to memorialize it, you know, what it all means.

It seems over the last number of years that every conversation that I have with someone about this consists of listening to them, and which is never a bad thing, do not get me wrong, always listen, but it always comes down to listening to them explain or often, I don't know, sort of invent on the fly while we're [00:04:00] talking what they want to believe, because our culture, our civilization doesn't offer any answers, our media doesn't offer any answers, and truthfully, Protestant religion anymore doesn't offer any consistent answers. 

So, one person says, well, death means nothing, you know, when your time comes, the lights just go out. Another person says, well, you know, you become an angel in heaven, or maybe you become the guardian angel for your loved ones. Another person says, Oh, you get absorbed into the universe and become part of the sort of soul of nature. Another person says, Well, now you get to fertilize the trees and reduce carbon load in the atmosphere. Someone else says, Well, now you get to be with your dead relatives. Another person says, Well, you come back and are born as a baby to live another life. But truthfully, when I talk to people, most of them just look puzzled and say, [00:05:00] they don't really know, but they'll just move into the light.

Whatever that means.

But in those conversations, I get the impression that most people think it will be really kind of no big deal. It's all gonna work out okay. I mean, no one that I talk to thinks that they personally might go to hell.

I mean, they believe that there's a hell for really bad people like Hitler, but not them. If they believe in some sort of a god, they're pretty sure that he, she, or it will agree that they did the best that they could and just kind of give them a pass.

And because all of our beliefs about death have become so individualized, there's no consistency to how we prepare for it. So, how should we live knowing that we're going to die? In contrast, Catholicism offers this ancient principle, "memento mori," which is Latin for remember your death. In [00:06:00] other words, remember that it is coming and live in a way to prepare for it.

 But again, in our culture, when the end draws near, there's no consistency for how people meet it. I was recently in a hospice Visiting someone and the people at this hospice did an amazing job of making people comfortable, letting them decide, what they wanted at the end. So, you know, you could literally, you could pet a golden retriever. They'd bring a golden retriever in for you, or you could have someone play acoustic guitar, or you could have some sort of a prayer from a chaplain, or a medicine person, or whatever. And it could be any prayer, whatever you wanted to hear. They could just read a poem if you wanted. Now, of course, I get that the hospice people's mission is to serve a very diverse population and let those individuals decide, but it just reinforced my impression that our culture really has nothing to offer you at the end except whatever you [00:07:00] want. It has no answers to the big questions.

 And then after someone passes, well, we kind of make up our own rituals. So you can have your remains sprinkled on a beach or on a mountain or on a roller coaster or put into the garden to make the plants grow or pressed into a synthetic diamond. You can actually do that now, but whatever you wanna do, it's cool.

We don't really do funerals anymore. We do memorial services, or more often we do celebrations of life because why look at death? We don't really know what to say about it. Better to look back at what we did than forward to where we might be going.

Look, this is just a snapshot episode, so I don't want it to get too long. So let me just say that I'm comforted by Catholicism. Which has, I think, a serious and mature understanding of death. Our churches are often surrounded by cemeteries, which "memento mori," reminds us of our death.[00:08:00] We commemorate the saints when we celebrate those who have gone ahead of us. We pray for those souls that are completing their journey in purgatory, like we do today on All Souls Day. And throughout our life, the sacraments accompany us, from baptism at birth, the Eucharist, confession, and anointing at the time of death. And our funeral masses pray for the soul to find its rest in Christ. The Catholic Church takes heaven and hell. Seriously,

So today, on the Feast of All Souls, I'm personally comforted to be a Catholic, to know that my faith, my Church, has solid answers and practical solutions to face the reality that I will, all of us will, die.

Now, if you have any questions about the Catholic understanding of death or any questions about the Catholic faith at all, I'll be doing more listener questions episodes very soon. So, visit the website, consideringcatholicism. com, [00:09:00] and when you're there, you can subscribe, you can send me a question or a message, and you can support the podcast so that we can continue this ministry.

And you can also email me at consideringcatholicism@gmail.com.

Memento Mori.

Outro

Thank you for listening. My name is Greg Smith, and if you've enjoyed this podcast, would you please hit the like and subscribe buttons wherever you get your podcasts and please share it with others. And if you're curious about the Catholic worldview and faith, the church and its saints, or Catholic history, culture, and art, then visit consideringcatholicism.com and email me to let me know what you think. Greg at consideringcatholicism.com