The mystery of death.
In the face of death, the enigma of human existence reaches its peak. Man is not only the victim of pain, and the progressive deterioration of his body; even worse, he is also tormented by the fear of his final extinction. But the instinct of his heart is right, telling him to reject the idea of a total collapse, and of a definitive end of his own person.
Man carries within him the seed of eternity, which cannot be found in matter alone, and so he rebels against death. All efforts of technology, however useful they may be, cannot calm his anxieties. In his heart, he desires a life beyond this life, but the biological extension of his life-span cannot satisfy this desire.
Imagination cannot give him an answer, when confronted with death. Yet the Church, instructed by divine revelation, affirms that man has been created by God for a happiness beyond these earthly trials. Moreover, the Christian faith teaches that death, to which man would not have been subject if he had not sinned, will be conquered. God will restore man to the wholeness that he had lost through his own fault.
God has called man to be united to Him in His own immortality. This victory has been gained for us by the risen Christ, who by his own death has freed man from death.
Faith, presented with solid arguments, offers to every thinking person the answer to his future. At the same time, it enables him to be one in Christ with his loved ones who have been taken from him by death, and gives him hope that they have entered into true life with God.
But man must fight for it. Certainly, the Christian must fight against evil through many struggles and temptations in this life, and eventually death. But by carrying Christ’s life within himself, man becomes like Christ in death, and he can look forward, strong in hope, to his resurrection.
This applies not only of Christians, but also of all men who accept divine grace. Since Christ died for all men, and the ultimate vocation of man is in fact the same for all, that is, a divine vocation. We believe that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being united to Jesus, in a way God only knows.
Such is the great mystery of man, enlightening believers through the Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ, light is thrown on the enigma of pain and death, which would overwhelm us without having his Gospel to teach us the truth. Christ has risen, destroying death by his own death; he has given us the free gift of life, so, now, as children of God, we may be able to say in the Spirit: Abba, Father!
Edited from "Gaudium et Spes."
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