Death is Not the End
No one likes doomsday messages. Most of the time we do not like hearing about the final judgement. This week, however, the readings (Daniel 12:1-3 and Mark 13:24-32) point towards the end of times and judgement. Jesus himself warns us that no one knows when the ‘hour is’ except the Father. He tells us that times of distress are signs for us to prepare and repent. The message today is not completely bleak because we know that death is not the end. Through the death and resurrection of Christ we can spend eternity with him if we walk in the true path.
“No, the journey doesn’t end here. Death is just another path, one that we all must take. The grey rain-curtain of this world rolls back, and all turns to silver glass, and then you see it. White shores, and beyond, a far green country under a swift sunrise.” JRR Tolkien, LOTR.
We are pilgrims on earth and our final destination is the heavenly home. Very often, we stray and get lost from the path we are meant to follow. In marking the 700th anniversary of the Italian poet Dante, Pope Francis encouraged all Catholics to read the Divine Comedy. He said that Dante is a “prophet of hope” because he shows us the path to free ourselves from the ‘dark forest of sin’ and find the ‘right path’. Dante’s pilgrimage towards happiness shows “God’s mercy always offers the possibility of change and conversion”( Apostolic Letter, 25 March 2021). Dante’s Divine Comedy, the Inferno is his allegorical journey into hell.
Midway upon the journey of our life
I found myself in dark wilderness
For I had wandered from the straight and true
In this ‘journey of our life”, Dante refers to all of us who at some point in our lives, go through which we may call it the mid-life crisis or spiritual crisis. Dante was 35 – in midway of his life when he took the wrong turn and ended up in the “dark wilderness of sin”. He tries to climb up the hill towards the light to leave the valley of darkness but is threatened by three beasts- the leopard, the lion and the she-wolf.
Each of these animals represent demons of lust, pride and avarice within him and us that has to be purified before we can leave the “dark wilderness”. He is met by Virgil (a guide), who explains to him that the way up is only through hell. Dante has to descend into hell and make his way through purgatory before he can ascend into heaven.
Dante depicts hell as narrow and constricted with Satan bound to a frozen wasteland-the coldest and farthest from God’s warmth whereas heaven as light and warm- filled with love. Dante uses ‘poetic justice” – a principle that every unrepented soul has to suffer in the after-life for sins committed in the worldly life.
Dante describes that the upper level of hell are sins of incontinence – excessive human appetite and lack of restraint; which are natural but damnable. The upper level of hell alludes to the failure to love in the right way. The lower level of hell are worst sinners where the intellect was misused. Dante’s journey begins with darkness but ends in joy and hope in paradise.
Here the invitation is for us to journey into the depths of our hearts, face our demons, and repent. Like Dante, sometimes we may need a guide to find our way back to God. We are called to walk on the same road as Jesus did”If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Lk 9:23). – SR
“God allows man to learn His supernatural ends, but the decision to strive towards an end, the choice of course, is left to man’s free will. God does not redeem man against his will.”
― John Paul II, Love and Responsibility
