How do you feel about death? Do you have fears?

[Robert_Sock]

The given “options” are deficient. I do not “fear” not “hope for” death. It is inevitable, but unwelcome. However, at least death and taxation are mutually exclusive - at least for the time being - though I am sure the polititians are already trying to figure out a solution .

But the poll made me to think: “speaking to those who can hardly wait… would it be impolite to say that I wish that their desire would be fulfilled as soon as possible??? Or would that be improper to endorse their wishes???”

Why not just pray for those of us who openly welcome death?

 

[ProdglArchitect]

I only hope that it happens while I’m on my way home after confession.

Seconded. I do not personally fear death, but I do hope that it’s painless and in the company of good friends and family when I’m much older than I am now ^^ The only thing I’m really afraid of is leaving my wife behind.

 

[Ophelia23]

Like the last poster, a painful death doesn’t have much appeal, particularly death by torture.

However I’m not so blase about what might come after death either. In my case I’ve got a bit more reason than most to be leery. I’ve stated ad infinitum that the night my own father died, he materialised in my room. He started with an apology for 25 years of deliberate cruelty (which basically destroyed my confidence, and he admitted he did it deliberately as “I was jealous. I didn’t have the same opportunities you did.”)

At one stage I blurted out, “What is this!!? A dream or something?!” He got a slightly bemused expression on his face, and replied, “No, it’s not a dream. I died tonight.”

At the end he gave this absolutely terrifying scream. It was obvious something was coming for him, but I couldn’t see what it was. I could only see him.

So if we don’t pass muster, death will not be a peaceful experience at all.

This is not unbiblical. Christ warned us that those who have not believed in him have already been judged. Mary at Fatima gave the three children a vision of hell, and they nearly died of fright.

So I’m not much of an admirer of death. It doesn’t turn me on.

Wow. Did this happen before you aware of your father’s passing?

 

[Holly3278]

I somewhat fear death. It is a fairly strong fear of death but I wouldn’t call it a very strong fear. I fear going to Hell more than anything else. I need to work on increasing in the virtue of hope.

 

[missmorgan389]

Death is just a change of address. Not to keen on the suffering that will precede death, or the purgatory that I will most likely have to go through, but I’m ready.
This world holds little for me, I’m a stranger in a strange land (and it’s getting stranger by the minute).

Agreed.

 

[shoe]

Agreed.

x 2

 

[mangy_dog]

The only thing I fear is to die without the Sacraments. I would consider that an untimely death.
Which is one of the reason I keep a life of prayer and a life of the spirit, nurtured by the Sacraments of Confession and Communion.

 

[Lost_Wanderer]

I didn’t say it was. I would like a martyrs death because it is a crowning glory in the life to come. In fact I’m just being greedy. (and you missed your half of the quote)

Hehe, nah I see what you did there. Though I thought I’d refer to his line about being honest/dishonest instead. I guess it didn’t pan out.

On a more serious note, seeking immortality can be for a noble cause. When I read about the way mankind progresses and look back at history, I wonder: What would it be like to see it all happen? What would it be like to be sitting here right now, typing on this laptop.

But then centuries later, I’m walking, ageless and unchanged, in a megacity out of a sci-fi movie. You hear talk of space being the new frontier as well as a bigger online world. I hold a mobile phone that calls my flight cycle.

Basically, what would it be like to observe the world through the ages?

 

[Qoeleth]

I think many ‘outsiders’ would find it interesting that the majority who answered the poll would welcome death. Is there any other group of people where the majority would welcome death? Dedicated nihilists?

Personally, I also find it comforting- that, sooner or later, the pain of living will be over, and the soul will be realised from this dungeon.

 

[johnnyc176]

Hard for me to answer. While I hope for eternity with our Lord I also think life is a gift so I do not want to seem unappreciative of this life that God gave me. I guess my answer would be whatever the Lord wills I will trust in Him.

 

[Robert_Sock]

I think many ‘outsiders’ would find it interesting that the majority who answered the poll would welcome death. Is there any other group of people where the majority would welcome death? Dedicated nihilists?

Personally, I also find it comforting- that, sooner or later, the pain of living will be over, and the soul will be realised from this dungeon.

You sound like me!

 

[Chris_Etzel]

I’m scared to be cremated or buried. I just want them to leave me in a shady spot to wither. And I want to see my kids grow up before I’m called home.

 

[Robert_Sock]

The death of the just: Death will reach everyone, the good and the bad; but the destiny of each one is quite different. The just man sees himself in this valley of tears as a prisoner, serving a very hard term. He considers himself a slave in this world, suffering an extremely distressing servitude. He regards himself a sailor caught in a horrible storm. And as death means an end of his confinement, an end of his slavery, and is the port of his salvation, he ceases not to cry with David, “Woe is me that my sojourning is prolonged!. . .” (Ps. 119:5). He ceases not to ask with the Apostle, “. . . Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24)
–The Golden Key to Heaven, by Saint Anthony Mary Claret

 

[JRKH]

I think many ‘outsiders’ would find it interesting that the majority who answered the poll would welcome death. Is there any other group of people where the majority would welcome death? Dedicated nihilists?

Personally, I also find it comforting- that, sooner or later, the pain of living will be over, and the soul will be realised from this dungeon.

Somehow, I just can’t think of God’s beautiful earth, where he placed us, as a dungeon…

Peace
James

 

[Inego_de_Loyola]

Somehow, I just can’t think of God’s beautiful earth, where he placed us, as a dungeon…

Peace
James

That is only because you are not thinking in comparison to the glories of heaven.

 

[Qoeleth]

Somehow, I just can’t think of God’s beautiful earth, where he placed us, as a dungeon…

Peace
James

I suppose it depends upon a lot- where you are, your situation. The beauty of the things of the earth depends upon how they are seen. The person who sees a broad, red desert through the window of an air-conditioned car might see beauty. The person stumbling through the blazing sun, thirsty and torn by the thorny weeds might see it as a prison.

The middle-class family with a nice house and well-paid professional might see the working of society as a thing of beauty. The working poor and the unemployed might see it as a prison.

Anywhere can be a prison, and, I suppose, anywhere can be the Garden of Eden. It depends upon how rich and healthy your are.

 

[JRKH]

That is only because you are not thinking in comparison to the glories of heaven.

I disagree…

1. I don’t see this as being a “comparative” study where only one can be beautiful - palatial and the other must be ugly and a dungeon.
2. The earth is made by God and when He made it, declared it good. That which is of God and is “good” cannot be a dungeon.
3. God has placed me here and I am content and happy and think it is beautiful.

Peace
James

 

[Qoeleth]

I disagree…

1. I don’t see this as being a “comparative” study where only one can be beautiful - palatial and the other must be ugly and a dungeon.
2. The earth is made by God and when He made it, declared it good. That which is of God and is “good” cannot be a dungeon.
3. God has placed me here and I am content and happy and think it is beautiful.

Peace
James

But doesn’t Scripture also say, “You shall not love this world, nor anything in the world. He who loves the world does not have the love of the Father in him. For the world, and the lusts thereof, are passing away.”

And: “Whoever hates his life in this world will inherit eternal life.”

Again, it is good that you are happy and content. But please spare a thought for those wracked with pain, those who are enslaved to labor, those who don’t have a share on the world’s resources.

I for one am not about to tell anyone that the world is good. If it has been good to them, they know it already. If it has not, it is no consolation to them it might have been good for others.

 

[JRKH]

I suppose it depends upon a lot- where you are, your situation. The beauty of the things of the earth depends upon how they are seen. The person who sees a broad, red desert through the window of an air-conditioned car might see beauty. The person stumbling through the blazing sun, thirsty and torn by the thorny weeds might see it as a prison.

The middle-class family with a nice house and well-paid professional might see the working of society as a thing of beauty. The working poor and the unemployed might see it as a prison.

Anywhere can be a prison, and, I suppose, anywhere can be the Garden of Eden. It depends upon how rich and healthy your are.

How about a person on a low - fixed income with a terminally ill spouse (Late stage Alzheimer’s) and dwindling savings…Such a person, by the reckoning above should see the world as a prison.
Yet said person does not.
He sees God’s mercy and Love, the occasional smile of his lady, the sunrise and the rain, the goodness of others who pray for him and his wife and who come and help out when they can…and on and on…

You are quite right in saying that the world can be a prison or a garden but it does not depend on ones health or wealth so much as on one’s spirit and faith in our Loving God.

That’s how I see it anyway…

Peace
James

 

[Inego_de_Loyola]

I disagree…

1. I don’t see this as being a “comparative” study where only one can be beautiful - palatial and the other must be ugly and a dungeon.
2. The earth is made by God and when He made it, declared it good. That which is of God and is “good” cannot be a dungeon.
3. God has placed me here and I am content and happy and think it is beautiful.

Peace
James

Truly this earth is beautiful, but compared to the beauty of heaven it may as well be a dungeon. Seeing as this mortal life is what stands between us and the glory of heaven, I would say it is valid to think of it as a prison.