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Parapsychology and Magic / Life after death / Death conceptions / The Catholic Vision of Life and Death / 


The Catholic Vision of Life and Death

The Church, in a very real way, however, creates her own culture, and she certainly does so with regard to death and dying. The Catholic vision is informed by faith in Jesus Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church expresses the faith of the Church in these words: "Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: 'For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.'" (Phil 1:21) What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already 'died with Christ' sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's grace, physical death completes this 'dying with Christ' and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act." (CCC, #1010)

Lent illumines the teaching of the Church on death. We began with the imposition of ashes, a clear sign of our mortality. The older formulary accompanying the imposition reminds us that we are dust, and to dust we shall return. This starkly realistic reminder begins our observance of Lent, whose meaning is beautifully expressed in the following Sunday's opening prayer at Mass: "Father, through our observance of Lent, help us to understand the meaning of your Son's death and resurrection, and teach us to reflect it in our lives." A Catholic's entire life, including dying and death itself, is to be experienced under the cross and in the enduring hope of resurrection. Because Christian death has been given a positive meaning through the saving death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, we are able to face the reality of death with a serenity that grace affords.

Our future does not lie behind us. While the last word of sin is death, Jesus has put to death sin and death itself. With St. Paul we are able to cry out, "Death, where is thy sting; grave, where is thy victory?" The funeral rite, including the wake vigil, Mass of burial and burial of the body, expresses the Catholic vision of death. Contemporary efforts to erode the full funeral rite are disturbing because they can easily dim the Catholic vision of death. Whatever separates the experience of death and dying from the mystery of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ weakens the Catholic vision. Because the Christian has already died with Christ sacramentally, death itself in the Catholic vision is not seen as the ultimate evil - as the end of life, of hope, of the future. It is not necessary, therefore, to do everything that is technologically possible to sustain life on this earth as long as medicine allows.

The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services in #56 and #57 spell out the wisdom of the Catholic vision: "A person has a moral obligation to use ordinary or proportionate means of preserving his or her life. Proportionate means are those that in the judgment of the patient offer a reasonable hope of benefit and do not entail an excessive burden or impose excessive expense on the family or the community. "A person may forego extraordinary or disproportionate means of preserving life. Disproportionate means are those that in the patient's judgment do not offer a reasonable hope of benefit, or entail an excessive burden, or impose excessive expense on the family or the community."

Obviously, these directives do not answer every complication that is imaginable. As principles for moral reasoning, however, these and the other directives provide a vision which respects the inviolable right to life of every human person, while at the same time recognizing that death itself is not the ultimate evil to be avoided at all costs. In the Catholic vision God is sovereign. We are stewards of the great gift of life - ours and that of others. Life itself is of inestimable value because each human being is made in the image and likeness of God. Only God is perfect, and we are destined to know that perfection when we see Him as He is in the glory of heaven. Focus on the question of quality of life is off the point from a Catholic perspective. Life for us is the inestimable gift of God; if life on this earth is in any way shaded, we have the sure knowledge that God has destined us for the perpetual light of heaven.

Our Lenten effort to understand the meaning of Christ's death and resurrection, and to reflect it in our lives, is not only a Lenten effort but should characterize our entire lives. So it is that the burden of one's own sickness, pain and dying are given meaning through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Suffering is not without meaning for us. Paul's words are both guide and consolation when he says that "we make up the sufferings that are wanting in Christ." Clearly, there is nothing we can bring to render effective the saving death of Christ. His is the all-sufficient sacrifice. Yet, in a wondrous and loving condescension, God makes it possible for us to join our suffering to that of Jesus on the cross.

A common Catholic expression is "to offer up." We offer all that we are, including our suffering, in union with Jesus on the cross. In all our worthy efforts to care for the sick and dying, it would be tragic if we forgot the rich tradition on suffering that is part of Catholic culture. I do not speak about morbidity of mind or masochism, but rather a faith-filled transformation of the reality of suffering. Pain is not a good to be sought for itself. The Ethical and Religious Directives state: "Patients should be kept as free of pain as possible so that they may die comfortably and with dignity, and in the place where they wish to die. Since a person has a right to prepare for his or her death while fully conscious, he or she should not be deprived of consciousness without a compelling reason. Medicines capable of alleviating or suppressing pain may be given to a dying person, even if this therapy may indirectly shorten the person's life so long as the intent is not to hasten death." #61 It is very important that Catholic health care efforts include a competence in pain management. All too often the availability of pain control is not sufficiently known or utilized. Appeal for compassion for the pain-ridden patient is often the most compelling reason why some misguided but well-intentioned people support euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide. Pro-Life efforts should certainly include a medically sound and morally acceptable treatment of pain.

Compassion, such a rich concept, is set on its head when it is invoked in support of causing death. The word means to "suffer with." Jesus is the perfect model of compassion for us. He has borne our infirmities, our sin, our death. He is Emmanuel, which means God-is-with-us. Again and again in the Gospels His compassion finds expression in a look, a touch, a healing word. We who live in Him are the look, the touch, the word of His compassion for all in need. The concept of compassion is richer yet. Jesus has told us that whatever we do for the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the stranger, the sick, the imprisoned, we do for Him. In showing compassion for the sick and dying we suffer with Christ in our midst. The saints were consumed with the realization that in those most in need they met the Lord. Compassion, then, is central to the Catholic vision of death and dying. The Church is present every step along the way from here to eternity.

We are in the midst of a revolution in health care and public welfare. The victims of this revolution are the poor, particularly the very young and old, and the sick and dying. A fixation on cost containment has put us in a situation where the must vulnerable are sacrificed for the bottom line. This is not said as an appeal to forego fiscal responsibility. It is a cry, however, for compassion for the most vulnerable in our midst. The Catholic vision of dying must include advocacy for sufficient funding for nursing homes, home health care, and hospice programs. Catholic health care institutions, Catholic social service bureaus and Catholic parishes must work together to ensure that every dying person receives the compassionate care to which every one of God's children is entitled. This care must be extended to all - not only to those of the household of the faith. In every human being we encounter the living God. Parish-based health care is an initiative which should be promoted. As length of stay in medical institutions continues to be shortened, and as home health care public support is reduced, parishes face a growing challenge to be present with compassionate care to the sick and dying. This calls for the study of existing models and inclusion of this ministry in the ordinary scope of parish life.

A 1998 Gallup survey of 1,200 Americans on spiritual beliefs and the dying process confirm the abiding value of the Catholic vision of death and dying. The survey cites:  People desire human contact when dying, just having someone close to share their fear and concerns, holding their hand or touching them.  People desire spiritual comfort, having the opportunity to pray alone, to have someone pray for them, to have someone help them become spiritually at peace, or to have someone praying with them.  "The faith communities need to address more and effectively the concerns people have about what happens after death, matters such as guilt and forgiveness." These and other findings by this Gallup study point to the value of the Catholic approach to death and dying.

The pastoral care of the sick, which includes Communion, Anointing, Viaticum, commendation of the dying and prayers for the dying, responds to the deepest needs of the human heart. The importance of the Sacrament of Penance, and the reconciliation with God and the Church which it affords, cannot be overemphasized as a good for the sick and dying. The fear that is often associated with death can often be dispelled by the grace of that sacrament. How beautifully St. Francis of Assisi points us to seek God's forgiveness in his Canticle of the Creatures: "Praised are you, My Lord, for our sister bodily Death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe on those who will die in moral sin! Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy will, for the second death will not harm them."

It was once said that true philosophy is learning how to die. The French philosopher Albert Camus added that the one ultimate question of philosophy is suicide - what reason do we have for not simply killing ourselves. It is perhaps in facing death, and confronting the question of assisted suicide, that our vision of God's gift of life shines forth most brightly. This prayer from the "Commendation of the Dying" beautifully expresses the Catholic vision:

"Go forth, Christian soul, from this world in the name of God the almighty Father, who created you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, who suffered for you, in the name of the Holy Spirit, who was poured out upon you, go forth faithful Christian.

May you live in peace this day, May your home be with God in Zion, with Mary, the Virgin Mother of God, with Joseph, and all the angels and saints."



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