Why do we have to die? What happens when we die? The one thing we are sure of is that our body ceases to function. It stops working. We die. What happens when we die is open for speculation, theological reflection and scripture.
Dogmatic Theology describes death as man’s true friend, his liberator from the unnatural chains of matter (p73). Classical eschatology indicates that in death there is a separation of the body and soul. The body returns to the earth to await the general resurrection of the dead. The soul, immortal, enters into eternity to enjoy the beautification vision. This was reaffirmed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith in Rome in 1979. ” The church affirms that a spiritual element survives and subsists after death, an element endowed with consciousness and will, so that the “”human self”” subsists though deprived for the present of the complement of its body...” (Lane, p 150, Hayes 165).
Hayes includes the notion of purgatory. Hayes indicates that in accordance with Christian teaching those who die in the state of grace but still burdened with temporal punishment due to sin already forgiven or still having the guilt of venial sin must undergo purgation after death. This implies that the state of grace at the time of death can increase in perfection after death until they have reached a state of worthy of union with God ( Hayes, p 111). Purgation in Cardinal Ratzinger’s view is a process through which the human person is made comfortable with Christ, with God and with the entire community of the redeemed[1]. Dogmatic Theology indicates that Purgatory is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints (p 230) In the New Testament as a whole it is maintained that “there is an “”intermediate”” state of being with Christ something to be expected immediately after death as a continuation of life with Christ.”(p 168). This intermediate state identified as “Hades” applies to everyone between death and resurrection. The saints intercede for people and they may be called upon for their intercession. Through the Eucharist, through prayer and almsgiving, the living can bring “”respite and refreshment”” to the souls in Hades. However, the “”unhappiness”” in Purgatory is not taken to include a purifying or atoning suffering” (p 228). Hayes confirms that the dead may be helped by prayers and good works of the living. This was affirmed by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in 1979 with the strong caution “that the church””excludes every way of thinking or speaking that would render meaningless or unintelligible her prayers, her funeral rites and the religious acts offered for the dead.””(Hayes, p 116)
Cardinal Ratzinger states that the encounter with Christ in death is an encounter with the body of Christ. It is therefore an encounter with the individual’s guilt (Hayes, p 118). Pope Benedict affirms the teaching that the souls of those who are not in need of purgation enjoy the “beautific” vision immediately after death while the condemned likewise enter their eternal condition after death. (Hayes, 179) Ratzinger also disagrees with the notion of a separated soul, that the entire person dies and encounters God in death and not just a disembodied soul not allowing the whole of history present with each person at the moment of death (Hayes, p165).
Crowe provides a fitting, simple conclusion to the complexity of why we have to die and what happens afterward. We have to die because it is a phase that we must all go through. We have to die because our biological process is exhausted. Finally and best of all we have to die because God wants to share his life with us (pp 106-115).
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