{"id":60846,"date":"2024-10-31T22:35:06","date_gmt":"2024-10-31T21:35:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/?p=60846"},"modified":"2024-10-31T22:36:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-31T21:36:55","slug":"life-and-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/life-and-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Life and Death"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

From a certain perspective, dying is the best way to deal with life. Our life is only perfect when we also acquaint ourselves with death; it\u2019s really best to make friends with death. Imagine for a moment that a human life was endless. Never dying\u2014that would be the worst thing that could happen to us. Real life would then no longer be possible. It would just be a kind of vegetation.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When a life comes to a natural end, death is often a salvation. When someone becomes weak and frail, when the burden of years and cares can no longer be borne, death comes as a savior. It then allows for a different kind of life to be possible. \u201cLife is nature\u2019s most beautiful invention and death is her artifice to have more life.\u201d<\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> From time to time, we can see a visible sign of \u201cgreater life\u201d\u2014even a sign of redemption\u2014as an imprint in the mortal body. Following the struggle of death, sometimes, we see an expression of sublime calm and peace on the deceased\u2019s face: death as redeemer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Have we ever realized that death was not a savior for Christ? On the contrary! After his death, he had to fulfill the most difficult task that exists on Earth. He, himself, had to redeem death! With his death on the cross, his mission on Earth was not yet fulfilled. Long before this, Christ had already announced his greatest task with the words: \u201cThree days and three nights the Son of Man will be in the heart of the Earth\u201d (Matthew 12:40). The heart of the Earth: this is the realm of death and the underworld (Greek: Thanatos and Hades, Revelation 1:18).<\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Christ did not wage the greatest battle on Earth, but rather in the heart of the Earth, in order to overcome death and the underworld from within. Since his death and his resurrection, every human being who seeks him and follows him can experience death in a different way than before\u2014no longer as a prisoner in the heart of the Earth but now carried in the heart of Christ. Thanks to his death, death is no longer our enemy. He can even help us to find Christ: In Christo morimur<\/em> [In Christ, we die]. One cannot start practicing the art of dying early enough\u2014even if it is only \u201chand exercises\u201d at first. That\u2019s why the children who stand in front of the altar in the Christian community hear again and again that the Spirit of God leads life into death and that which is dead into life. Thus, they learn to know the spirit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Christ\u2019s body was not just placed into the Earth. He, himself, joined himself to the Earth like a seed\u2014in order to bear fruit for the whole world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI Will Not Send You Off\u201d<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Illness is something that affects every human being at some moment in their lives. Friedrich Rittelmeyer once wrote an essay entitled: \u201cFor the Sick and Those Who Could Become So.\u201d<\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span> Naturally, there will come a time when each of us will have to deal with it. None of us are comfortable with the thought of becoming dependent on other human beings. And even more worrying is the idea of no longer being able to stand on our own two feet and becoming bedridden. In such helplessness, it is the greatest test not to become impatient or rebellious. A sick person is also called a \u201cpatient,\u201d from the Latin patientia<\/em>, patience. This is an indispensable prerequisite for recovery! As a patient, it\u2019s better we don\u2019t ask ourselves \u201cWhy me? What am I being punished for?\u201d Such questions are no help for recovery; just the opposite is the case. Instead of looking back and tormenting ourselves with such questions that we can\u2019t answer, it\u2019s more productive to look ahead and ask ourselves: \u201cWhat can I develop through this illness? Is there perhaps a hidden gift in this trial?\u201d Novalis writes: \u201cIllnesses, especially protracted ones, are apprenticeships in the art of living and character building.\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/a><\/span> He knew what he was talking about, having been tested by illness for years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Imagine that behind every illness, there is an angel waiting to share a precious gift with us. Like Jacob, who fought an invisible enemy at night, we can say to him: \u201cI will not send you off unless you bless me.\u201d [Gen. 32:26]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since Christ lived upon the Earth, every illness can become a path to salvation\u2014as long as we become real \u201cpatients\u201d who walk the narrow path through the eye of the needle with patience. Just as he did during his life upon the Earth, he can say to each of us: \u201cThis sickness is not unto death but for the glory of God\u201d (John 11:4).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Translation <\/strong>Joshua Kelberman
Image <\/strong>Christina Deravedisian<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a certain perspective, dying is the best way to deal with life. Our life is only perfect when we also acquaint ourselves with death; it\u2019s really best to make friends with death. Imagine for a moment that a human life was endless. Never dying\u2014that would be the worst thing that could happen to us. Real life would then no longer be possible. It would just be a kind of vegetation. When a life comes to a natural end, death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19605,"featured_media":60967,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8788,8793],"tags":[11572,8814],"class_list":["post-60846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-essay-en","category-philosophy","tag-english-issue-44-2024","tag-musings"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19605"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=60846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/60967"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dasgoetheanum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}