Death is a door

Haruki Murakami, a contemporary Japanese writer, says, “Death is not the opposite of life but an innate part of life.”[1] Often, we get scared of death because we imagine death as a dead end or a place of arrest, decay, and oblivion. On the contrary, death is the door to meeting our loving God. Death is freedom from all ills and limitations and is a new beginning of living in a much more glorious and joyful way. Death is the necessary tunnel on the road of life that leads one to God.

The mystic, Richard Rohr, says, “Death and life are two sides of the same coin; you cannot have one without the other. Each time you surrender, each time you trust the dying, your faith is led to a deeper level and you discover a Larger Self underneath”.[2] We like to live pretending that there is no death. Birth and death are two inseparable gates of life — one leads to earthly life and the other to divine life. You cannot have life without death, and you cannot have death without it leading you to life. Once you accept death, you can see through it, and eventually, you can start moving into the Divine life.

Death is a door and not a wall. Death is freedom and not confinement. This is the reason many mystics, saints, martyrs, and persons of wisdom walked happily and courageously toward death. Jesus very powerfully used the imagery of a grain of wheat for dying and rising — “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (Jn. 12:24). Death is an inevitable truth and each person needs to embrace it. The earlier you befriend death, the fuller and more meaningful will your life be. 

Can you think of one more way in which death can be a blessing to you?

John Baptist OFM Cap.

Therapist

Belmont Behavioral Health System

Philadelphia, USA

 

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[1] Haruki Murakami, Norwegian Wood, New York: Vintage Books, p. 273.

[2] Richard Rohr, Death Transformed