Holy Week: Living and Dying

Sometimes we hold on too much to life and there are times when we seem to use death as an escape route - a false solution to our problems. But what is it that makes life worth living and at the same time worth dying for.

“How can we describe that moment in which we experience what life truly is? It is the MOMENT of LOVE, a moment which is simultaneously the moment of truth when life is discovered for what it is. The DESIRE for IMMORTALITY does not arise from the fundamentally unsatisfying enclosed existence of the isolated self, but from the experience of love, of communion, of the Thou." - Joseph Ratzimger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life

Death is the door to eternity. With a life lived in love and truth, death becomes its fullness. It is fulfilment of what we are living for.

“I have not so lived amongst you, that I need be ASHAMED to LIVE; nor do I FEAR to DIE, for we have a GOOD LORD”. -St. Ambrose

“Courage is almost a contradiction in terms. It means a strong DESIRE to LIVE taking the form of a READINESS to DIE.” - GK Chesterton

Holy Week- to Die with Jesus

There is always a dying in each of us. A sense of losing a part of us. It could be a loss of meaning and purpose due to lack of direction, physical sickness, or just that emptiness. It could be a sense of not knowing who we are. There is a LOSS. There is SOMETHING MISSING.

But there is also a holy death that brings forth life, a re-creation, a transformation. We know and we believe Jesus died and resurrected. This is our holy death - to experience Christ Crucified in our suffering and the suffering of others.

"As the cross of Christ demonstrates, God also speaks by his SILENCE. The silence of God, the experience of the distance of the almighty Father, is a decisive stage in the earthly journey of the Son of God, the incarnate Word. Hanging from the wood of the cross, He lamented the suffering caused by that silence: ' My God, my God, why have you forsaken me ( Mk 15:34; Mt 27:46). Advancing in obedience to His very last breath, in the obscurity of death, Jesus called upon the Father. He commended himself to him at the MOMENT of PASSAGE, through death, to eternal life: 'Father, into your hands I commend my spirit' ( Lk 23:46)." (Benedict XVI, Verbum Dei)

We all experience pain. Yet, it is a loud call that beckons, or even begs us to accept the love of God. When we do, we, in turn, can continue to love, to hope, to believe. Our life, even in suffering, becomes a prayer. This experience of dying is not limited to sickness. Parents, most esp mothers, would know the pain of going through this passage to new life. In Pope Benedict XVI, he must have experienced this, too, when he accepted the papacy. And moreso when he renounced it.

"Yet at the same time, Jesus' suffering is a Messianic Passion. It is suffering in FELLOWSHIP with us, in a solidarity - born of love- that already includes redemption, the VICTORY of LOVE." (Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth vol 2, p 216)

With the Cross, God loved me and you. He fought the battle with us and for us. He conquered death with new life.

“And so it turns out that the confrontation with physical death is actually a confrontation with the basic constitution of human existence. It places before us a choice: to accept either the PATTERN of LOVE, or the PATTERN of POWER. The God who personally died in Jesus Christ fulfilled the pattern of love beyond all expectation… The Christian dies into the death of Christ himself. The uncontrollable Power that everywhere sets limits to life is not a blind law of nature. It is a LOVE which puts itself AT OUR DISPOSAL by DYING FOR US and WITH US. Man’s enemy, death, that would waylay him to steal his life, is conquered at the point where one meets the thievery of death with the attitude of trusting love, and so transforms the theft into the increase of life.” (Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life)

The Last Moment

Have you ever been close to death? Have you ever given it a thought as to what it is like? Maybe, it's about time we do. It can make a difference as to how we find LIFE while we still have a CHANCE.
The final moment is the LONGEST MOMENT of our life, but we have glimpses and a window to it, even now, as we exist.
The final moment is so much like entering the CONFESSIONAL BOX. It is scary isn't it to be ALONE with WHO WE ARE. There is no priest, this time, but SOMEONE is there. Will we RECOGNIZE HIM when we come FACE to FACE? Will there be a VEIL of SHAME that separates or a JOY upon seeing HIM?
The next step is something we all had a great deal of practice in our lifetime. We now WATCH REALITY TV inside the CONFESSIONAL BOX. It is the clearest PICTURE and the widest SCREEN we will ever see. We will watch our OWN LIVES. Hear our own words. See our own actions. All the IMPRINTS of our HEART shall be REVEALED. The PRECIOUS TIME of our OWN LIFE that keeps on ROLLING right before our eyes. The CONNECTIONS that we never see. The CONSEQUENCES that are now unveiled for time and space is no longer a hindrance. No illusions, just the NAKED TRUTH of our own lives that can make us cry, laugh, pout, smile, be shocked, be joyful, be sick, be relieved, be bored, be angered, be pained.
Now, we CAST our own RATING. It is not as easy as we would like to think. There will be NO CROWD to cheer or boo. There will be NO COMMENTATORS or PSYCHOLOGISTS to analyze. There will be NO SURVEY to take refuge on. Will we avoid the "yes" or "no" and start BLAMING? Or make a list of EXCUSES? Will it be a CONFESSION or a DENIAL? Will it be ACCOUNTABILITY or ARROGANCE? Will it be MERCY or PRIDE? Will it be GRATITUDE or DISBELIEF?
In THE END, our WILL be DONE and we have CAST our OWN JUDGEMENT. In our MORTAL LIVES, we have FORGED the DOOR to ETERNITY - an eternal life or eternal damnation.
Still, we have the TIME to start WATCHING and FACE ourselves, our own REALITY. Then, maybe we can FINE TUNE our WILL to God and have a clearer picture, and make a better script for our lives by the CHOICES we make. We are SPENDING our TIME but we don't know how much is on our ACCOUNT.