Death is a mystery of life that many adults have a difficult time grappling with, much less children. Yet children have many questions when it comes to death, and a Catholic worldview provides an explanation that both inspires and consoles.
Pointing to the Holy Family helps form this worldview.
The Holy Family and Death
Jesus, Mary, and Joseph were intimately familiar with death.
First, they lived in close community in Nazareth. They would have participated in ancient Jewish customs surrounding the deaths and burials of their friends and extended family.
Just as it was a joy for them to share in the celebrations and victories of life, it was an honor for them to participate in the sorrows and mourning of death.
A Happy Death
Saint Joseph, in particular, is the patron Saint of a happy death. This is because tradition holds that he died before Jesus' public ministry began, and thus would have died in the company of the Son of God and the Mother of God. What a happy way to pass from this world!
As Catholics, we ask Saint Joseph for his intercession in our deaths and the deaths of our loved ones. We have the opportunity to die in the same (spiritual) presence of Jesus and Mary through the Sacraments and the Communion of Saints!
Therefore, we need not fear what is to come when we know the Holy Family will be with us.
Did Mary Die?
On the feast of the Assumption, we remember that Mary was assumed into Heaven, body and soul.
Theologians debate on what kind of "passing" Mary experienced from this life to the next. Since she was free from Original Sin, it would follow that she would not be subject to the exact same kind of death experience as the rest of humanity.
Some theologians posit that she fell into a "deep sleep"; others propose that she was assumed just in her old age.
However Mary understood it was her time to enter Heaven, we know that she went forth confident in God's love, under the care of the Church (as represented by the Apostle John), and certain of the joy that awaited her.
We, too, can experience the same hope for Heaven as we strive to live lives of holiness. We, too, can be fully surrendered to the plan of the Father for our lives.
Death Does Not Have the Final Word
Finally, the Word made Flesh, Jesus Christ, submitted Himself to death on a cross for the salvation of the world. God Himself desired to share in all our sorrows but sin, even to the point of laying down His life to set us free from them.
We can embrace our own crosses throughout life and death knowing that Jesus has born them for us and bears them with us now.
Heaven as Home
Those who desire a happy death must declare Heaven as their home, for when we greet the pain and darkness of earthly death, we know that it is not really the end.
When Heaven is our home, death is a homecoming.
May we all pray for happy deaths in which we are taken to our Heavenly home in the arms of the Holy Family!
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