One day, our lives will come to an end. This definite truth frightens us. As our society would like to hide death, play it down or even erase it, the fear is even greater. But does death really have the final say? Don Paul Denizot delivers a message for November.
Dear friends,
November is a sad month. It’s cold, and rainy, the sky is overcast, night falls earlier, the sun rises later and the last leaves are falling. We are being reminded that, whether we like it or not, we are on the doorstep of winter. By the way, it is not without reason that the Church chose the month of November to honor the memory of the dead.
It is a time for us to visit cemeteries and to remember those we have loved – a father, a mother, a brother, a sister, a relative, a friend, a grandfather. For many of us, there is quite often a grandmother whom we mourn and miss for her unconditional love. November is also a time to remember that we also shall die one day. Whether we are rich, poor, beautiful, ugly, young or old, that is an absolute certainty.
Death is a scary
One day, our lives will come to an end. Such certainty is scary. It also frightens us because it reminds us of our own solitude. As the singer Fabienne Thibeault points out, “We sleep next to each other, we live with each other, but in the end, we realize that we are always alone in the world.” We also find death frightening because we have no control over it.
One day, our lives will come to an end. And this certainty is scary.
“Mors certa“, says a Latin proverb, and “hora incerta“. Death is certain, but the hour is uncertain. In our secularized society where omnipotence is put forward, we hide it, we play it down, we control it, as transhumanists are trying to do. But in the end, we instigate death, like assisted suicide or euthanasia. All these are ways to avoid facing the question.
Does death have the final say?
For, in the end, death is a question. The ultimate question, the fundamental question of our existence: what has the final say? Is it death, evil and suffering? Or is it life and love? In our hearts, we sense something deep within that fundamentally resists the question of death love.
We fundamentally believe and hope that love is stronger than anything else. And that’s the good news of the Gospel: that God became man, died and definitively conquered death.
Don Paul Denizot, rector
of the Notre-Dame de Montligeon shrine
