Death and beyond

THE month of November begins with the celebration of the
Solemnity of All Saints and the Commemoration of All Souls. These are
celebrations that remind us of the wonderful reality that our life is
not just limited by our earthly space-and-time existence, but has
other dimensions that we often take for granted.

We have to be wary of our tendency to get stuck to the
here and now, and to be so immersed in the drama and game of our
earthly life that we fail to realize there is a lot more beyond what
we have here, what we do and say now, what we are at present.

We may create all sorts of problems and chaos in this
life, all kinds of ugliness. But, hey, there is hope! Christ has
redeemed us with his death! Sin and death have their sting removed.
Let us learn to see beauty in all the chaos and ugliness of our
present, and attain redemption in our seemingly hopeless predicament.

Let’s remember that Christ’s all-powerful and never-fading
work of redemption that culminated on the cross, can take on anything
that we say, do or are, whether it is something good or something bad.

What is simply needed at the very least is our openness to
the merits of Christ’s redemptive work by not putting obstacles to
them or resisting his will and commandments. We may still commit
errors, but if done in good faith, there is still hope. Christ will
repeat what he said just before he died: “Forgive them, Father, for
they know not what they do.”

These celebrations on November 1 and 2 should expand our
awareness that we belong to the family of God whose image and likeness
we are and whose children we also are. As such, we are not meant to
live in time alone, but also in eternity, not here on earth alone, but
also in heaven.

We need to be more aware of our duty to seek sanctity in
the middle of our earthly concerns. Even more, we need to be skilful
in carrying it out. This duty, in so many words, is combining our
earthly concerns with our eternal goal.

To be sure, this duty is doable, and not a fantastic job
that exists only in our dreams and intentions. God himself guarantees
that it be practicable and attainable. It is his will and he has given
us all the means to achieve it, including giving himself to us in
Christ, in the Holy Spirit, in the Church and the many
instrumentalities the Church provides us.

There is nothing in our life that cannot be sanctifiable.
What matters is that we relate everything to God, whether it is
something good, for which we ought to be thankful, or something bad,
for which we have to be sorry.

Even our sins, if repented, can be a tremendous trigger
for grace to be showered on us. We, of course, should try to avoid sin
which is actually a matter of increasing our love for God and for
others.

That’s because where there is true love, temptations and
sin would find it hard to get into our mind and heart. We therefore
have to learn to love with the love of God which is the true source of
love. We have to try our best to keep it alive all the time.

But to be realistic, we know that given our human
condition, even our best efforts at loving cannot keep us from not
sinning. We always fail somewhere along the way, and end up having to
say sorry. And so, let’s just be humble enough to make it a habit to
make acts of contrition, atonement and reparation.

As to the reality of death, let’s not be afraid of it.
Let’s remember that in the beginning, we were not meant to die. Death
came as a consequence of sin. But with Christ’s redemptive work, death
now becomes a transition to our eternal life with God.

Humanly speaking, it causes grief. But if seen from the
point of view of our Christian faith, it is a great moment of joy,
since it is our time of deliverance, our entry into true and lasting
freedom.

The pains and suffering associated with death, in whatever
form they take, are meant for our purification. They are meant to
unite us to the redemptive passion, death and resurrection of Christ.

We need to be more aware of this truth of our faith about
death, so that we can more actively correspond to its divine,
redemptive dynamics.