Easter Sunday • Easter Sunday • Easter

Whatever one’s view of death, death will come to each person. Shakespeare was right when he wrote:

Golden lads and girls all must,As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.6

Many people face death with some misgivings, as they face any new experience. Some do not want the subject mentioned. However, to refuse to face death realistically is as ridiculous as it is to refuse to face life realistically. Two views of death are common.

The first view asserts that death is the end. Those with this outlook usually maintain, “There is no God and death ends all.” That philosophy changes ones s view of the world. It makes the universe a mad, haphazard one composed of billions of atoms swirling everywhere, going nowhere. It makes it a scramble of old elements thrown together with unexplainable origins and meaningless destinies. If this view be accepted, growth, progress, and evolution make no sense. Even the ideas of past, present and future are nonsense. Many of the best scientists cannot accept such a world view.

“But,” some will assert, “I believe in God but I cannot believe in eternal life.” Such a view portrays God as the creator of a bunch of puppets, who watches them play and then fall into the grave while he sits in the heavens and laughs at their weakness. Is that the kind of God to whom one can commit a life?

A second view of death is that it is a means to life. Christians believe that God has invaded the world and disclosed something about himself and his plans. The Christ, more than any other, disclosed the nature of God. This Christ said:

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”(John 11:25-26)

For those with Christian faith, death ceases to be a leap in the dark and becomes a means for life. This is what Paul meant when he wrote:

I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.(2 Timothy 4:7-8)

Only a few things about this better life are known: God will be there; the Christ will be there; God’s people will be there; love will be there. St. Benedict summed up the Christian view of death when he wrote, “Death is the gate to life.”

When faced by death, it is better to mourn than to harbor the guilt and sorrow that is felt. Healing is to be found in the mourning process. Yet it is healthy also not to brood about death but to live life to the full.

Simply put, we are faced with two views of death. The first asserts with Edgar Allan Poe:

Out, out are the lights -- out all.And over each quivering formthe curtain, a funeral pallComes down with a rush of a stormWhile the angels, all pallid and wan,Uprising, unveiling, affirmThat the play is the tragedy, “Man,”And its hero, the Conqueror Worm.7

The second view asserts with Bunyan in Pilgrim’s Progress:

My sword I give to him that shall succeed me in my pilgrimage and my courage and skill to him that can get it. My marks and my scars I carry with me, to be a witness for me that I have fought his battles who now will be my rewarder. When the death that he must go hence was come, many accompanied him to the riverside, into which as he went he said, “Death, where is thy sting?” And as he went down deeper he said, “Grave, where is thy victory?” So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side.8

Prayer

O God, in whose salvation we are glad and rejoice, on this Easter, we thank You for the victory of Your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, over sin and death. We thank You for his mighty Resurrection and for the hope and the assurance granted to those whose faith is in him, that “though we die, yet shall we live.”

Grant to each of us, our God, the ability to see beyond crucifixions to resurrections. As You used the suffering of the Christ to fulfill Your purposes, so use our sufferings and defeats to accomplish Your victories. Help us in the darkest moments of despair to see the light of Your love and to have some of the victory of the first Easter in our lives each day.

May the triumph and hope of Easter strike deeply into the lives of the human family to assure us of the higher glory which awaits those whose trust is in him who said, “I am the resurrection and the life.” (John 11:25a)

We rededicate ourselves to serving You and glorifying You forever. Fill us with Your grace, that this dedication may result in purer, truer, and more holy lives. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen