How do we approach the mortality of our lives?

In the matter of just a week three Aussie icons died: Steve Irwin, Peter Brock and Colin Thiele. Death seems incredulous for those who like Steve Irwin and Peter Brock dance with it daily. They became larger than life, full of life and seemingly indestructible. Yet in the end they are human and mortal and their families and friends and all those whose lives they touched are grieving their loss.

Death touched Jesus too. We see Jesus have compassion for the widow of Nain whose only son has died, and he raises him to life again [Luke 7:11-17]. In John 11 there is the story of the death of his friend Lazarus and the raising of him from the tomb. Jesus mourns with us, has compassion on us and raises our loved ones to new life.

There is a public ritual developing around such deaths where people wish to express their grief and to remember and celebrate the life of that person. The language is reminiscent of what we know in our Catholic tradition of celebrating life. I think as Catholics we do this well. We are people of the resurrection and death is no surprise, however sad. Our belief in the resurrection of Jesus and in our life beyond death brings hope and peace and comfort amid the grief and loss.

In the Catholic tradition our funeral mass is a celebration of life, the life of the person but it doesn't stop there. It is also a celebration of their life as gift of God. It is a celebration of God's love that brought this person into being and now loves them through death into life forever with God. Moving from the focus on the person to the Word and Eucharist we are engaged in the story of God among us. As we celebrate the life of one, we confront our own mortality, and we share the grief and hope in communion with each other and with all who have gone before us.

One Easter a friend gave me a small terracotta pot filled with earth and he told me to keep it moist and place in a sunny spot.

I knew that there must be more to this pot than just the earth but I didn't know what.

Faithfully I watered it and eventually a small green shoot emerged.

It grew and blossomed into the sunniest daffodil. This Easter present was the story of death and resurrection, the Easter story. Out of the darkness of the earth where the bulb was buried grew this glorious new life which would again die and return to the earth only to grow again in all splendour.

So many of our life challenges are like deaths where we find ourselves in the darkness of the tomb, buried in the earth, not understanding God's presence, feeling alone and abandoned in the dark. Yet we have the opportunity to grow into the light and bloom again with new life. We can hear Jesus calling loudly to us as he did to Lazarus, 'come out.' And we can understand that we come to life again among our community who Jesus instructs 'Unbind him, and let him go free.'

When someone like Steve Irwin dies he can almost be immortalized like a god yet I think there was a strong message from his family that he was an ordinary bloke. Despite all the hype of a world intoxicated by life and in denial of death we are all fragile human beings who will die.

Rosemary Canavan lives in Adelaide. Her qualifications include a Bachelor of Arts major in Psychology and two Bachelors degrees in Theology, the most recent an Honours degree in New Testament studies. She has two adult children.

Email this article to a friend	Post your feedback in our forum

What are your thoughts on Rosemary's reflection?
You can contribute to the discussion in our forum.

Rosemary can be contacted at: rosemary@catholica.com.au

[Rosemary's Take Archive]