If you are a baptized Christian and you do not fear your unavoidable physical death, there may be something wrong in your current walk of faith.
We have all heard the proverbial phrase, “There is nothing to fear, not even death”; Christ has conquered death by His Resurrection! For hopeful and faithful disciples of Christ, this saying carries much weight, and, there is nothing inherently wrong with saying or believing such a sentiment. I suspect, however, that there may be many of us who rarely think about the details of the inevitable reality that we will all have to face; not merely thinking about the fact of having to physically die, but to actually contemplate about what it is we will have to suffer and how we should daily prepare for that destined hour, and even the many trials and tribulations we will encounter leading up to that hour. Before we go on further let us remind ourselves of the benefits of physical death that Christ has purchased for His followers.
Most assuredly physical death, in contrast with spiritual death, has always been viewed and defined as a temporal punishment resulting from the effects of sin. However, in light of Christ’s Paschal Mystery, physical death has been elevated from a curse to a blessing, considering we are graced with the hope of dying with Christ to be raised with Him. And, of course, physical death is a temporary transition to the hopeful, neverending bliss we shall enjoy in the Beatific Vision of God. Therefore, we should never become despondent nor despair physical death in a manner that we would surely have had if not for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is expressed clearly in the following passage from Hebrews chapter two, verses 14 and 15:
“Since, therefore, the children share flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” (Emphasis mine)
Then why should a hopeful and faithful Christian have any legitimate reason to fear physical death?! Should not this dread be reserved for those who have nothing to hope for after death?
The one thing every Christian needs before entering into Heaven is to be perfectly conformed to the image of Jesus Christ, in everything we do, think, say, and avoid. The surest way of fulfilling that is doing exactly what he exhorted us to do: ‘deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me’. That is, to hand our entire will over to God (‘deny yourself’), joyfully embrace and endure our suffering (‘pick up your cross’) – but, where are we to follow Our Lord? In the simplest of terms we are to willingly enter into Our Lord’s Passion to greatly suffer and die with Him, where we may follow Him into the promised Fatherland.
“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.” – Romans 6:5
Many baptized Christians mistakenly, and perhaps unwittingly, confess to believe that that which Christ has suffered, He endured in our place so we will not have to. Furthermore, many of those same baptized Christians believe that the Sacrament of Baptism only cleanses and forgives sins, while any meritorious suffering that was carried by Christ was done so that we, His Body, would not have to. This could not be further from the Truth! As Saint Paul mentioned in the aforementioned verse, ‘[I]f we are to be united to Christ in a resurrection like his we will have been united with him in a death like his’! Surely, not every Christian martyr (or non-martyr) was, or will be, scourged and crucified in the exact manner as Christ was. However, any baptized Christian who has any virtue of hope in being united to Christ in the Resurrection must suffer in, with, and through Christ in His Passion.
“We well know that not merely does [baptism] cleanse sin and bestow on us the gift of the Holy Spirit, it is also the sign of Christ’s suffering…. So in order that we may realize that Christ endured all his sufferings for us and our salvation actually, and not in make believe, and that we share in his pains.” – Saint Cyril (Emphasis mine)
Saint Laurence Justinian says, “[T]hat the death of Jesus was the most bitter and painful of all the deaths that men have ever died; since the Redeemer died upon the cross without any, even the slightest alleviation.” (Emphasis mine)
Saint Augustine also says, “[T]hat Jesus Christ was agitated at the sight of his death, but that he was so for the comfort of his servants; in order that if ever they should find themselves disturbed at their own death, they should not suppose themselves reprobates, or abandon themselves to despair, because even he was disturbed at the sight of death.” (Emphasis mine)
Saint Thomas More says, “That over this seeing that [Christ’s] martyrs joyfully and courageously hasted them toward their death, not letting even then boldly to rebuke and reprove the tyrants and their cruel tormentors, how unseemly might it be thought that Christ himself being, as a man might say, the chief banner-bearer and captain of all martyrs, should, when he drew near to his passion, be so sore afraid, so heavy, so wonderfully unquieted and troubled. Whereby it appeareth that to fear death and torment is none offence, but a great and grievous pain, which Christ came not to avoid but patiently suffer; so liked it him not in his body only to endure most cruel tormentry, but inwardly also to feel in his blessed soul the sore anguish of sorrow, fear, and weariness.” (Emphasis mine)
Of course, the most explicit testimony we have for expounding on the degree of suffering Our Blessed Lord endured is from the Gospels. What more of a palpable revelation of Christ’s sorrowful anticipation of his own suffering and physical death do we have than the written record of what He experienced in the Garden of Gethsemane? As sweat and blood gushed from His every pore out of fear of His inevitable Passion, this was the one instance where Our Blessed Lord pleaded for mercy and alleviation from His Father! Not even on the Cross of indescribable agony where “the Father abandoned His Son to His pains to die without solace” did He plead for mercy, but only at the anticipation and fear of His imminent suffering and death while He externally bled from an internal sorrow in the Garden. Oh, if we only knew the degree of sorrow Our Lord’s soul experienced during these moments! And, where else but from the Gospel do we most clearly see our participation as baptized, pious Christians in the sufferings of Christ?
‘But Jesus said to them, “You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or be baptized with the baptism that I am baptized with?” They replied, “We are able.” Then Jesus said to them, “The cup that I drink you will drink; and with the baptism with which I am baptized, you will be baptized.’ Mark 10:39-39 (Emphasis mine)
What else would are Our Lord be alluding to than that cup of anguish He pleaded for His Father to take away and the baptism of His death He anticipated with blood and sweat in the Garden? As mentioned before, Our Blessed Lord’s death was the most bitter and painful of all the deaths men have ever died; as He saw the sins of the world and the vision of his future torture and death He was to undergo, blood and sweat issued forth. This is what should strike fear into our hearts and minds as members of Christ’s Mystical Body! Not a servile fear of despair that will lead to perdition, but a real, salutary and filial fear of knowing precisely what a faithful and docile Christian will have to suffer and should prepare for everyday of his or her life; viz. sharing in the passion of Jesus Christ to the point of abandoning our entire selves to the intensity of pain that Our Lord embraced which shall lead to our eternal beatitude. This is a good and holy fear; one that produces hope and perseverance while receiving the grace to patiently and joyfully bear our sufferings with the One who gave up His Life for us! Why? Because we get to participate and experience, in the most radical sense of intimacy, union with God by suffering with, through, and in Him Incarnate.
Saint Francis de Sales says, “We ought to act in a manner of total resignation to the will of the Father as did Our Lord, particularly at the hour of our own death; but, in order to do it well then, we should practice it frequently during life”. That is what we should lucidly contemplate and daily prepare for, that in the Spirit as baptized Christians who were baptized into His death and buried with Him, and who are to drink that same cup of agony, and through the likeness of suffering and death that we will share with Our Blessed Lord, we may all rise with Him in His Resurrection.
And, finally, this is why Our Lord sternly warned his disciples and followers of the costs they would have to pay, even to the point of calculating and mapping out these unavoidable, future sufferings in parables, before fully committing themselves to following Him to the heights of Golgatha by denying themselves, picking up and carrying their own crosses, and finally following Our Lord to share in His death and resurrection! (cf. Mark 14:28-31)