We are All Afraid to Die

ONE

The Bible tells us Jesus came to set free all those who had been held in slavery all their lives by the fear of death.  Death. Yet we are all afraid to die.

Last night I watched the movie A Hidden Life about Blessed Franz Jaggerstatter, an Austrian farmer and devout Catholic who refused to swear allegiance Hitler and fight for him. For this he was put to death in 1943. He has since been declared a Martyr and Beatified by the Church.

I was deeply disturbed by this movie. It kept me up all night. Why? Because it reminded me that we are all going to die. We will all die, and we fear it.

People say; “Oh, I am not afraid of death.” Yes, yes they are – they just haven’t faced it so they are blissfully ignorant, maybe willfully ignorant. By the way the whole world reacted to COVID, we are slaves to the fear of death. Are you ready? How will you die: nobly or ignobly?

TWO

What part of death do you fear:

The fear of the pain and suffering that precedes death?

The fear of your existence being annihilated after death?

The fear of judgment and possibly hell?

The fear of unfinished business?

The fear of missing out on the pleasures of this life?

Which one of these is the reason you fear death?

Both the fear of suffering and the fear of death arise from the fear of loss. Suffering is the fear of the loss of some worldly thing. Death is the loss of everything in this world. We must prepare for death so that we don’t live as slaves to the fear of death.

THREE

How do we prepare for death? Two ways:

Live to the fullest the gift of life God has given you; then detach yourself from it regularly by penance to make room for the even greater gift God wants to give.  

We begin to prepare for death by accepting and living the gift of life God has given us. By this I mean we accept God’s design for our lives expressed in his commandments and the duties and responsibilities of our life.

For example; God’s design, His plan for my life was to get married, have and raise kids, work and take care of my responsibilities and share life with friends. God’s plan for me is a gift and it is immeasurably beautiful. The latest of which is playing with my grandson Cormac.

Now, there are lots of sinful ways to avoid God’s design and plan for my life, sinful ways to throw the gift away.  So, the first step is to accept the gift of the life God offers us and live it to the full by following God’s design for your life.

FOUR

The second way to prepare for death is to detach yourself from some part of it voluntarily each day to make room for the eternal bonanza God wants to give you.  

The gifts God gives us are so good that we get attached to them in a disordered way. Then - when God wants to give us even greater gifts, we can’t let go of the lesser. We must learn how to detach from God’s earthly bounty to get ready for the heavenly bonanza.

We can practice accepting the loss of earthly gifts in two ways:

Learn to accept the loss of things that come through the normal course of life.

We accept the loss of playing competitive sports as we leave high school and college. We accept the loss of being able to do whatever we want when we have kids. We accept the loss of physical strength and mental ability as we age. We accept the loss of responsibility as we retire.

By accepting the loss of God’s gifts through the normal course of life we prepare to receive His Heavenly Gift.

Don’t focus on the loss of good things. God only asks us to let go of lesser things and make room to receive infinitely greater gifts.

We’d be crazy not to give up a studio apartment for our own tropical island. And that is nothing compared to what God has in store.

FIVE

The problem with suffering and death is that we are forced to give good things up involuntarily – against our will.

To overcome the fear of suffering and death, give up good things voluntarily.

Penance is to voluntarily give up some good thing to overcome our fear of death and to increase our desire for God. Both increase the space in our soul to receive more of God.

Practice giving up little pleasures voluntarily to overcome your fear of suffering and death and to increase your desire for God.

Go to bed early. Get up early and pray or go to daily Mass. Exercise if you don’t feel like it. Spend less time on YouTube or social media. Fast from the news. Eat less. Drink less alcohol. Don’t gossip or read gossip or listen to gossip.

Everyone is afraid to die. We don’t have to live as slaves to the fear of death. Prayer and Penance are the path to freedom.