Good Friday: Learning How to Die
Have you ever watched daytime television? I am not talking about the soap operas. Those are a waste of everybody’s time. (Trust me I know of what I speak. I list them as part of my past addictions.) No, I mean the talk show circuit. Those of the Dr. Phil kind where people are challenged to deal with the demons in their life. Have you ever thought about what is the common theme that runs through each of these shows? I have because I live it every day of my life — fear of death and all the names that identify death for a person: failure, rejection, unlovable, unredeemable… Thing is, you and everyone around us lives with these fears as well. In and of itself its not a problem. Its what we do with that fear that creates the “problems” in our lives. Because most often, rather than learning how to die we run away and hide. We hide in alcohol, food, sex, gambling, power & control, abdication, video games……. One of the greatest gifts we can give ourselves and to those we love is learning how to die, to ourselves, our problems and our pain. My fear is the problem and the pain will consume me and I will be no more. The truth? Well, for those of us of faith — death is a necessary step if what we seek is a true life.
Today throughtout the world time stops for many as we recognize the historical truth of today — Jesus died on the cross. 
A few years ago Lent was made so powerful as people watched Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ. For the first time, those who watched understood that Jesus suffered as he made his way to the cross. He suffered a lot. After years of watching the sanitized version of the passion of Christ in made for TV movies where if the suffering was at all in the production it was off screen, people finally saw that Jesus suffered. And his death was not a simple nod of the head and he was gone but that too was an agonzing moment. Why, you might ask yourself did Jesus do that? After all, as the Son of God he could have done a number of things so as not to enter fully into the pain and agony. But he did suffer. In his humanity he endured excruciating pain and eventually his own death. Why? For many reasons. Some I spoke of yesterday in my blog: Good Friday–Why Did Jesus Have to Die. (March 20th). The reason I want to speak about today is so that we can learn how to die.
I am not speaking of the fear that most of us have of enduring a painful, excruciating experience. Some, depending on the depths they have allowed their demons to sink into their lives, will endure a lot to free themselves. And there are those of us who struggle on a daily basis and will for the rest of our lives. I am speaking of the mere fact that death to our demons is an essential step if what we seek is new life; a new path; a new way — personal resurrection. Jesus showed us how to die. Some of us have the fortunate gift of having a friend or relative inviting us into their own journey of physical death and all of us have such saints as John Paul II who hid nothing from us and saw each potentially humiliating wipe of drool as he said Mass. Or Teihard de Chardin who died alone in complete poverty and obscurity. Or Archbishop Oscar Romero who was shot while in the middle of Mass. Or the four women who were martyred in El Savadore after enduring unbearable torture. They meant these final moments with dignity. Pope John Paul knew what was happen; the rest suspected their lives were in grave danger. None of them hid or rain away. They faced down their tormentors in the same way we are called to do.
Death is a part of life — both the physical and the spiritual/psychological. Many of us have spent our entire lives trying to run away and hide from it. Let me ask this and I want you to think hard — Has anyone, using whatever means as their numbing agent of choice, been successful? Has Alcohol, Food, Drugs, Sex…. any of that EVER cheated death? So why continue down a path that is a certain act of futility and waste of time. Embrace death. Die to yourself so that you too might share in the life of Easter — Your own personal resurrection. For one thing I am certain of — Jesus did cheat death. He rose to new life. Yes, he embraced the death of Friday and his reward…. LIFE! Choose life. My prayers are with you. I remain, your servant in Christ,
Theresa
Tags: addiction, death, death on Cross, Easter, fear of death, new life, pain, passion of Jesus, resurrection, why death
You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
