Exploring the Sacred 4-16-20
18. It is in the face of death that the riddle a human existence grows most acute. Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual extinction. He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors and repudiates the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person. He rebels against death because he bears in himself an eternal seed which cannot be reduced to sheer matter. All the endeavors of technology, though useful in the extreme, cannot calm his anxiety; for prolongation of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for higher life which is inescapably lodged in his breast.
Although the mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination, the Church has been taught by divine revelation and firmly teaches that man has been created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of earthly misery. In addition, that bodily death from which man would have been immune had he not sinned will be vanquished, according to the Christian faith, when man who was ruined by his own doing is restored to wholeness by an almighty and merciful Saviour. For God has called man and still calls him so that with his entire being he might be joined to Him in an endless sharing of a divine life beyond all corruption. Christ won this victory when He rose to life, for by His death He freed man from death. Hence to every thoughtful man a solidly established faith provides the answer to his anxiety about what the future holds for him. At the same time faith gives him the power to be united in Christ with his loved ones who have already been snatched away by death; faith arouses the hope that they have found true life with God.15
Death
1006 “It is in regard to death that man’s condition is most shrouded in doubt.” In a sense bodily death is natural, but for faith it is in fact “the wages of sin.”568 For those who die in Christ’s grace it is a participation in the death of the Lord, so that they can also share his Resurrection.
1007 Death is the end of earthly life. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old and, as with all living beings on earth, death seems like the normal end of life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives: remembering our mortality helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment:
Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, … before the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.
1008 Death is a consequence of sin. The Church’s Magisterium, as authentic interpreter of the affirmations of Scripture and Tradition, teaches that death entered the world on account of man’s sin. Even though man’s nature is mortal, God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin.572 “Bodily death, from which man would have been immune had he not sinned” is thus “the last enemy” of man left to be conquered. (401; 376)
1009 Death is transformed by Christ. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet, despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father’s will. The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing.575 (612)
2448 “In its various forms—material deprivation, unjust oppression, physical and psychological illness and death—human misery is the obvious sign of the inherited condition of frailty and need for salvation in which man finds himself as a consequence of original sin.
Illness in Human Life Page 375
Illness in human life
CCC 1500
1500 Illness and suffering have always been among the gravest problems confronted in human life.
CCC 1500
In illness, man experiences his powerlessness, his limitations, and his finitude.
CCC 1500
Every illness can make us glimpse death.
CCC 1501
1501 Illness can lead to anguish, self-absorption, sometimes even despair and revolt against God.
CCC 1501
Very often illness provokes a search for God and a return to him.
CCC 1502
It is before God that he laments his illness, and it is of God, Master of life and death, that he implores healing.
CCC 1502
Illness becomes a way to conversion; God’s forgiveness initiates the healing.
CCC 1502
It is the experience of Israel that illness is mysteriously linked to sin and evil, and that faithfulness to God according to his law restores life: “For I am the Lord, your healer.”
CCC 1502
Finally Isaiah announces that God will usher in a time for Zion when he will pardon every offense and heal every illness. (164; 376)
CCC 1505
On the cross Christ took upon himself the whole weight of evil and took away the “sin of the world,” of which illness is only a consequence.
CCC 1506
By following him they acquire a new outlook on illness and the sick.
CCC 1508
But even the most intense prayers do not always obtain the healing of all illnesses.