Finding a certain peace with death

by Joseph Nangle, OFM
Pax Christi USA 2023 Teacher of Peace

We are coming to the end of the liturgical year, having relived Salvation History from the announcement of Christ’s coming in Advent, to the proclamation of His resurrection at Pentecost.

Appropriately, the gospel this Sunday speaks of end times, the culmination of this dramatic story as recounted in Mark’s gospel (chapter 13) and particularly in Matthew’s (chapter 25). Jesus’s proclamation of this era is dramatic and even frightening. And there is always the temptation to connect it with current events, such as those we experience today, particularly in our own country. However, together with these disturbing portents, we must remember others: for example, from John’s beautiful prologue to his gospel: “What came to be [God’s Word Incarnate] through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5)

These end time words of Jesus inevitably bring thoughts of death – its human realness for us and all humanity, particularly in this month of remembering our deceased. As playwright Robert Bolt has St. Thomas More say in “A Man for All Seasons,” during More’s trial for sedition: “All of us die, even kings.”

For many (most) of us elders approaching death becomes a constant in our lives. Gradually, we think about it, pray about it and, hopefully, find a certain peace with it. Unfortunately, there are some who cannot achieve such an attitude of acceptance. It is so sad to review in powers of attorney the list of measures to be taken as their deaths approach: cardiac resuscitation, mechanical respiration, artificial nutrition, antibiotics. They all seem so futile in the face of the power of death, which, according to Karl Rahner, the famous Jesuit theologian of the 20th century, is the ultimate surrender to God. Rahner has observed that surrendering to sleep each night is a kind of rehearsal for this ultimate surrender – an act of faith in a loving God who awaits us.

Unfortunately, too, while so many of our sisters and brothers lack such faith, we, the followers of Christ, have the wonderful gift of this experience. He died; He was buried. We would do well to meditate deeply on those words which often trip off our tongues as we so often repeat our proclamation of our faith.

Once we have interiorized the startling fact that the Word Incarnate, the Son of God, begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, who was sent by the Father because He so loved us, truly died (was executed) and was placed in a tomb. Then we encounter the astounding fact that the Incarnate One actually rose alive from the dead. He remains one of us living in glory!

This is the starting and ultimate point for our attitude toward our own death and burial.

Then there is the seal on this in the Catholic rituals for a deceased person: the Paschal Candle, that Easter symbol of Christ our light – in life and in death; the hymns of confidence in His resurrection; the white cloth draped over the casket, often with a crucifix on top; the instructions for a proper homily on Jesus’s resurrection and ours. And above all, the Eucharist, which represents the acclamation prayed within it “we remember that we will see you Lord when you come in your glory; we remember, we celebrate, we believe.”

A woman had just learned that all the genius of medical science could no longer help her sustain life. She leaned back on her pillow and said: “All my life I have believed that death does not have the final word for us, it is not the last chapter of a human life; life eternal is.” So she soon joined that wonderful reality of the Communion of Saints to whom we pray, especially during this month of November.

Francis of Assisi wrote in his Canticle, “Praise God for Sister Death.”

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Joe Nangle OFM is a Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace and the 2023 Pax Christi USA Teacher of Peace. As a member of the Assisi Community in Washington, D.C., he is dedicated to simple living and social change. Joe also serves as the Pastoral Associate for the Latino community at Our Lady Queen of Peace, Arlington, Virginia.