Lent Day 2: Is Death Evil? (2/23)
Introduction to Art of Dying Well w/ St. Robert Bellarmine
“Now every one will admit, that the "Art of dying Well" is the most important of all sciences; at least every one who seriously reflects, how after death we shall have to give an account to God of everything we did, spoke, or thought of, during our whole life…
But before I treat of these Precepts, I think it useful to inquire into the nature of death; whether it is to be ranked among good or among evil things. Now if death be considered absolutely in itself, without doubt it must be called an evil, because that which is opposed to life we must admit cannot be good. Moreover, as the Wise man saith: "God made not death, but by the envy of the devil, death came into the world."! Wisdom i. 11. verses 13 24. With these words St. Paul also agrees, when he saith: "Wherefore as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death: and so death passed upon all men in whom all have sinned." Romans v. 12. If then God did not make death, certainly it cannot be good, because every thing which God hath made is good, according to the words of Moses: "And God saw all things that he had made, and they were very good.
Although Bellarmine will discuss how Christ transformed death into a ‘good,’ he first presents to us why death is an evil. Put more accurately, death is a fruit of evil or a natural consequence of separating ourselves from the Author of Life. But didn’t God create death? If God created death, then this would make God evil, and we would have an entirely different religion on our hands! In Christianity, the separation of body from soul is a great distortion of God’s plan for us. The Lord made our souls and bodies in His image. Our souls can communicate with God and love Him, but it is our bodies that create like Him! We produce children, grow bountiful gardens, construct homes, and design planes, trains, and automobiles. He made us to be royal priests of His cosmic temple which is all of Creation so that we could cultivate it and offer it back to Him in thanksgiving and praise! So the death of our bodies is a tragic twist in being human, because it eliminates our potential to “be like God.”
Not only does death eliminate our ultimate purpose of being co-creators with God on this earth, but it also stings by taking our loved ones away from us. Death is the enemy of love and the destroyer of community. Death can also overwhelm us with a sense of meaninglessness. “If there is no God who saves us, and death has the last word, then what is the use in doing this or that if we are going to die anyways?” We must first understand death as a mighty and great foe before we can understand that Jesus has become our great Savior. Thankfully, Christ stared death in its face and stripped it of its power as we will see tomorrow.
To conclude, God does not delight in death, but he does delight in REPENTENCE and the turning away from the actions of death (sin) that spiritually kill our neighbors and loved ones. The Prophet Ezekiel reminds us, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Sovereign LORD. Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live?" (See Ezekiel 18:23). The Art of Dying well reminds us that death is not God’s ultimate plan for us, but in order to escape and overcome death, we must walk the path of repentance daily. We must hunger for God more than we hunger for sin or even ‘lesser things.” This is why we fast in Lent so that we might Feast upon Him and taste and see that the Lord is good!
Be entirely and forever His,
Kyle A. King