7/29/2019 The Elusive Meaning of Human Death

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SR. MARIA ELENA ADRE, FdCC

THEOLOGY 264 FR. PETER POJOL, SJ

THE ELUSIVE MEANING OF HUMAN DEATH… 

(A COROLLARY TO THE ELUSIVE MEANING OF HUMAN LIFE)

Reflection Paper 1

I walked down the long dim aisle of the LST oratory to pay my last respects to the man who restored my

sense of self-appreciation. Only two candles kept watch as I surveyed his dark wrinkled face and the small frame

that appeared to have shrunk even more. No one else was around and I was enveloped by what seemed to me, the

loneliness, yet not the meaninglessness of his death…With a deep sigh, I thanked God for the gift that he is in my

life. I was at peace because I believed he would be in my life in a new way, a way I was to discover years later.

The two initial readings from Daniel Callahan impressed me with his apparent longing to

delve into the place and meaning of death in our human existence and with that the pursuit and

advocacy for a “peaceful death” as perhaps the equivalent of Ariès’ “tame death”. I cannot

disagree with the import of his goals although it seems that Callahan’s criteria for a peaceful

death, has little to do with finding its meaning. Indeed, we grapple with death’s meaning yet we

evade it so efficiently through debates about “law, regulation, moral rules and medical practice;

about making legal or ethical or medical choices” related to dying. Somehow the practical goals

make for some objectivity, some distance that allows us to evade the reality of death. I suppose,

we fear truly knowing ourselves, even as we long to understand our existence.

Callahan lays out in a somewhat thorough manner the complications particularly

introduced by modern medicine but one can notice that the emerging questions only bring us

back to the more ancient issues about self-society-nature (see pp. 18-19). His focus on the role of 

medicine is understandably unavoidable and it may be culturally justifiable to place it in the first

chapter of his book since that is where society (that sees death as the enemy) has placed its

hopes. I am glad that as he reveals the layout of his work, it seems he would dwell more on

nature, values, culture and ultimately meaning.

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I suspect that the meaning and place of death can only be found in the context of human

life and existence and not through an isolated (no matter how exhaustive) discussion of all that

must dialogue with this reality. Callahan wrote at one point: “Even if we can make some sense of 

the larger questions of...death…we will be left with difficult problems in the way we live our

lives.” Even such questions as: “What kind of persons should we try to become as we approach

our end? What kind of persons do we want to be?” reveal that death is inextricably woven to the

way we live and understand life. As we live, so shall we die. Scriptures allude to this:MT 26:52

 

"Jesus said to him, ‘for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.’” The mad drive to cling to

life paradoxically is in tandem with the drive to bring death to those deemed less worthy of life

(the unborn, the disabled, the old or infirm to name a few). We want to control death as we think 

we control life because their meaning continues to elude us.

In the larger context of life, death is mere transition to another life meant to be eternal as

 perhaps it was in the original plan of God for humanity in Genesis before the “the Fall” when

death took on not a punitive role but a salvific one. And with the death of the Christ we are not

simply restored but raised to a higher dignity than when we began to exist. “Who am I that I

must one day die?” The Fourth Gospel’s Prologue proclaims we came from God, from eternity

and are meant to go back to God; we are made for eternal life. Callahan notes that with medicine,

the amount of sickness increased as the average length of life increased. Nature is perhaps telling

us we are not meant to stay too long in this body, in this kind of life; death is only postponed but

never escaped; and necessarily so.

As an afterthought, I know that faith has shaped my perspective yet I acknowledge that

my serene disposition will be severely tested when death comes closer than what I’ve been used

to thus far…