Finding Hope in the Midst of Death
Covid-19 pandemic has become more real to us in recent days as we learned of friends who passed away from this vicious virus and many more are suffering. We grapple with fear and reflect on our mortality — that any one of us would be next. Many of those who lost their lives were good people. They served their community, exhibited kindness and gentleness to others when they were living. We ask why does a God of justice, let the righteous people suffer? It is a perennial question asked since antiquity — from the Psalmist in the Bible to Dostoyevsky in his great novels, from the bedside of a woman dying and the children whose young lives have been caught in the middle of a war.
The same question we asked today. Why does the evil triumph in society and whose poor decisions make the ordinary people pay? For sure, we bear some responsibility to follow health protocols to protect ourselves and our families. But there are decisions beyond the reach of the common man. Imposing stricter measures to prevent foreign variants from entering our airports and ports, improving tracking systems for those infected and testing en-masse to identify those who are positive and thereby containing the infections. These are within the realm of power of our government leaders. Many of whom seem to be more interested in political survival by strengthening the loyalty of their cronies and silencing dissent.
Yet everyday ordinary people suffer. Many have died. Many families are facing irreparable loss with the death of a loved one. Experiencing pain beyond any words we can ever describe. Unable to mourn properly and being with their loved one as health protocols dictate. We know that we all die. But this is the least in which we anticipate our death to be. Not in the lonely emergency room or ICUs. Not in crematorium. Not all so sudden that we did not have the chance to say good bye.
The fear of death is primal to humans. Christian tradition tell us that we fear death because we were not designed to die. Our spirit shares the same eternal nature with our Creator who created us in His image and likeness. But sin wounded our nature that part of who we are became exposed to finite elements of time, prone to corruption as dictated by our biological limitations. This duality in our nature co-existing within us meant that we have a body that dies and a spirit that lives forever. The spirit unused to death protests against the idea that there is a limit to its existence. Thus, the fear of dying.
I do not know if for many Christianity would offer some message of hope as Martin Luther King, Jr. has so profoundly explained. Redemption meant that we triumph over sin. It is not a defeat but the final triumph of God, the triumph of the spirit over our biological body. That finally the spirit is free of sin as it comes back to the eternity where it came from. God promises us we are redeemed, that we will triumph over death because He paid for our sins. He suffered for us. Faith tells us that there is life beyond death. We will not be reduced to nothingness. But with Him in glory unto eternity.
Death is a humbling experience. As I laid in pain two years ago in my lowest of low with Crohn’s Disease, death was like a shadow whose reality was not far behind. The knowledge of apparent death made everything lose meaning. Fame, wealth and fortune no longer held any significance. We came to the world bare and we will return with nothing. So why our heart give space to pride, to anger, to violence, to the things that hurt others and hurt ourselves?
If in our state of sinfulness there will be no death, what monsters will we become? Death has become an anchor to force man into humility and bring our prideful selves to our knees. If death becomes a reality we face day by day, we have to make the most out of life. Making a small difference in people’s lives and doing all within our power to make the powers that be accountable for the injustices they have committed. More importantly, we have the task to change for the better the systems that induce unnecessary suffering to ourselves and all of creation.
That is the powerful message of Easter. May we allow God, our Savior, to have it etched in our heart.