- It was Ben Franklin who said, "in this world nothing can be said to be
certain, except death and taxes". Yet modern society, with its fixation on
progress does everything possible to avoid the certainty of death from
elaborate funeral rites to expensive and often useless health fads.
Shakespeare, well aware that death is a "necessary end", wrote in Julius
Caesar, "Cowards die many times before their deaths; the valiant never
taste of death but once". And T.S. Eliot wrote in Sweeney Agonistes
that "Birth, and copulation, and death. That’s all the facts when you come to
brass tacks". Jean de La Bruyere observed that "There are but three events in
a man’s life: birth, life and death. He is not conscious of being born, he
dies in pain and he forgets to live." Perhaps some considerations like these
led St. Paul to exclaim "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from
this body doomed to death?" (ROM. 7:24). St. Paul also told us in the previous
chapter that death is the wage paid by sin. Probably the entire content of
this paper could be written simply by selectively quoting insights captured in
the aphorisms and adages of Western Civilization. Yet, a systematic treatment
of this topic seems of more value.
- Of first importance is to realize that it is the worldview of the modern
western civilization, viz., scientistic materialism, that makes death
such a problem because it has split life and death apart from their spiritual
base. Most of our ancestors of the nineteenth century, now the century before
last, went to their deaths with a devout faith and trust grounded in
Christianity that there was to be a resurrected life to come in a spiritual
world after this. That faith was gradually eroded by the acids of the modern
worldview which rendered all notions of a spiritual realm, whether present or
future, nonsense, because science could not fit them in its canons of
evidence. If science could not prove it, it was untrue. Along with the general
scientistic-materialism came faith in progress augmented by belief in
evolution. Progress and evolution fueled the drive for a "better" world here
and now. All too often that "better" world was located so far in the future
that only one’s grandchildren might benefit from it, but millions gave their
life work to the goal. This attitude, this faith, leaves humanity feeling
futile about their own lives. This futility is reinforced by the scientific
conviction that this world is doomed to end sooner or later with the death of
our sun. So maybe it is a billion years or so, but does it not render the
purpose of this life meaningless? The existentialists surely thought so.
Sartre in Being and Nothingness said humanity is "useless passion" for
his very existence is such as to make nonsense of his aspirations and
potentialities. Finitude and negativity have triumphed. Thus, justly, T.S.
Eliot can say that human life in this way ends not with a bang, but a whimper.
And we must admit, says John MacQuarrie, that "wherever we look at actual
human existing, we perceive a massive disorder in existence, a pathology that
seems to extend all through existence, whether we consider the community or
the individual."
- Before we can proceed beyond this massive disorder, we shall need to
understand it a bit better. MacQuarrie suggests that humanity is beset with
two basic forms of imbalance that create distortions in our lives. These
imbalances on the one hand are those of an individual or social nature such as
pride, tyranny, utopianism and individualism. These arise from refusal to
accept the actual facts, the finitude and limitations of human existence plus
the desire to have a superhuman, godlike existence free from the usual human
restraints. It is not uncommon to see this disorder among managers, CEO’s,
professional people, or the very rich. On the other hand there are the
disorders of sensual indulgence, insensitivity to others, despair and the
irresponsibility known as collectivism. These arise from a retreat from
possibility, decision-making, responsibility, individual liability, or even
from rationality. They move one toward a subhuman form of existence like the
animals. This disorder is found in all levels of humanity, but is more
frequent among the masses.
- These facts being true of the human condition, we would seem justified in
being as pessimistic as Sartre. Is there any way out? As St. Paul exclaimed,
"Who will deliver me from this body of death"? The optimism generated by the
combination of evolutionary theory with the notion of progress through science
and technology seemed to promise a solution. But surely the horrors of the
Twentieth Century with its myriad of bloody wars, social injustice, continuing
racial prejudice, huge discrepancies between the haves and the have-nots of
world society, not to mention even in the U.S., have made it quite clear that
progress through science and technology will not give an answer to the
inherent problem of human existence. We must frankly acknowledge with St. Paul
that we have to look for a solution from beyond humanity itself. We are in the
position of the alcoholic who has at last realized his/her impotence to cease
drinking. We cannot immediately say what the solution is, but it is quite
realistic to say that there may be some power beyond ourselves that can indeed
overcome our frustration with our existence.
- At this point it can be noted that it is the endemic imbalances of human
existence which constitute what St. Paul termed "this body of death". What is
the source of our imbalances? Why do we fall into these deathly patterns and
create these horrible injustices? Let us consider just what a person is and
how one lives, or why one lives as one does. To grasp the reason we need to
understand how we are constituted so that we must live by faith. To the
non-religious this statement will seem fatuous as well as wrong. They contend
that they are constituted by their not having faith. But consider this
definition of faith: it is the attitude or stance which one has toward that
which is considered most important for one’s existence. Paul Tillich called
this one’s ultimate concern. He observed that people are concerned about many
things, health, wealth, sex, success and so on, but that, at least at any one
moment, one or another of these is dominant. And that dominant factor is, at
that time, the content of one’s ultimate concern, thus one’s faith. Faith
points to that about which your life actually revolves. But, we ask, why must
we live by faith, can we not just live by fact, by science? The short, but
accurate, answer is that science is always grounded in faith; the major faith
being that the universe is so constituted that it can be rationally
understood. Secondly, it is part of the "faith" of science that only what can
be measured, quantified, is factual. When the scientific stance becomes the
basis of one’s life orientation, it is properly called scientism. Few, if any,
people actually live their lives by pure scientism; it is usually tinged by
humanism, or hedonism, or the common faith objects noted earlier.
- But why, we ask again, is faith necessary? Why did God so create us? The
answer is twofold: First, we are created in and with freedom. The continual
action of God in bringing existence into being out of nothingness is an action
of free creativity and that which is created is also imbued with freedom.
Freedom is grounded in creativity, that creativity by which God calls
existence into being out of nothingness. The second reason for freedom is that
God, out of love, wants our loving response and a loving response must be
freely chosen. Without this freedom our response would be that of automatons,
robots. Because we are created by and with freedom and creativity, we are
imbued with creativity. It is God’s desire that we be co-creators with
Godself. Thus the roots of faith are in creative freedom. If we were not free
to choose our ultimate concern, there would be no meaning to our loyalties,
our love, or our creativity. Thus the human existence is grounded in what some
have called tragic freedom. It is tragic because with our freedom we have
chosen to have as ultimate concern those things that are not ultimate; this is
properly called idolatry. The tragedy of idolatry is that ones ultimate trust
and loyalty is vested in something that is itself finite, thus doomed to final
destruction/death. All idols have clay feet, so to speak, and will sooner or
later come crashing down carrying with them those who placed their ultimate
concern in them.
- Part and parcel of our tragic freedom and creativity is our habitual
objectification of the world. In the story of Edenic paradise, Adam and Eve
objectify their world by the process of naming. The study of linguistics
reveals that the process of naming is, like the unique opposed thumb of
humans, used to grasp objects and hold them away from ourselves for
inspection, i.e., for objectification. Beginning with this simple process, the
world is divided into the I and the not I, into subject and object, a tragic
dualism. Developmental studies of infants have revealed that the onset of
human life does not know this division, all is oneness. However, this is not
the oneness to which the contemplative tradition points as the goal of human
existence. Paul Tillich termed it "dreaming innocence" when speaking of Adam
and Eve in paradise. Ken Wilber has accused certain modern psychologists of
what he terms the "pre-trans fallacy" by which he means the confusing of the
infantile lack of subjective-objective categorization with the contemplative
paradise. It is the objectification of the world, the division into the
subjective and objective which needs to be transcended in order to enter into
paradise, but within the limits of space and time can this happen, or how can
it happen?
- Our lot within this life seems to be that of tragic freedom. We have
within us a longing for paradise and hence a sense of paradise lost. The
ancients usually projected this sense into the past and told stories of a
once-upon-a-time golden age when all was right with the human and the world.
Later in history, the sense of longing for paradise was projected into the
future as utopia. And with the coming of science and technology is western
history, the utopia was seen as one to be constructed by human intelligence
and effort. Thereby even paradise was objectified as a this worldly state. The
Kingdom of God, which for Jesus was certainly not of this world, was
envisioned as a future state to be attainted if not totally by human
ingenuity, then with a little cooperation from God, but it would be here and
now, of this world. And is this way even the Kingdom of God was objectified.
All this objectification is meaningless when one considers the inevitable end
of this world as noted earlier. Of what meaning could any earthly state of
affairs have if it were doomed to end with the collapse of the Solar system?
The sci-fi answer is that we will escape to other worlds. But they too are
doomed to final death as is the whole universe of space and time. Ultimate
hope, faith, needs to be vested in something which is beyond this realm of
doom. In earlier Christian thought trans-worldly hope was embodied in the concept of heaven. However, that concept too
was objectified. In the more crass examples the streets of heaven was paved
with gold, its walls set with jewels, and, there being nothing to do, to be
attained, was clouded with boredom. The disease of objectification is part and
parcel of the primary fall, a fall into consciousness and egohood.
- The concept of utopia has had still another set of effects. A major one
has been the attempts to escape death, or more accurately, to prolong life.
Endless amount of time, effort and money has gone into this project. From
medical research to health fads and foods, even cryogenics, we search for the
elixir that will prolong life without limit. We are like DeSoto searching for
the fountain of youth, whether it be vitamins, viagra, or jogging. The
percentage of the gross national product that goes into these various
endeavors has been increasing at double the rate of inflation. But we must ask
whether life without end would be desirable? Even supposing one could retain
some semblance of health, would it be good to go on forever? We can answer
decisively that it would not for reasons ranging from the need to make space
for new life, to the simple fact that endless life would be endlessly boring.
A woman of my acquaintance in generally good health was being feted on her
ninetieth birthday; I asked her how she felt on being ninety. Her reply was
quick and to the point, "I don’t recommend it". Not only boredom could be a
problem, but could one endure the change that would be necessary to cope with
the alterations of culture coming about over any long period of time. If Rip
Van Winkle was confused to find himself out of date and very confused after
only one generation, what would it be like after say ten or more? Still
another effect of the fear of death, that leads to the hope of outwitting it,
is the modern funeral practice. One needs only to think about the morticians
art which leads the viewers of the dead to say "Oh, how lifelike she/he looks"
to realize the deception which supports the process. Endless life is not
merely an illusion, a vain hope, but would be undesirable even if
attainable.
- It is important at this juncture to ask what is the purpose human life
anyway? Why did God choose to create us? What is our destiny? There is a
statement often repeated in the contemplative literature that says, "God
became man in order than man might become God". Further, the tradition says
the human is created in the image and likeness of God. And Jesus says our goal
is to "be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect". Clearly any such goals
as these would require considerably more than a usual lifetime. It is pretty
obvious that one lifetime is not enough for the perfection of human
personality. It seems probable that considerations like these gave rise to the
insistence in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions on reincarnation and within
Christianity to the rise of the notion of purgatory. The traditional version
of this life followed by immediate ascent to heaven will not do to cope with
the problem of attaining perfection.
- Nicholas Berdyaev, the great Eastern Orthodox theologian, argues that it
is death which gives life meaning. "Life is noble only because it contains
death, an end which testifies that man is destined to another and higher
life." At the same time, death is a final horror and is evil, its depth and
greatness shatter our everyday world. It is the fear of death which drives
much of the emphasis on health and medical care which was mentioned earlier,
because death seems to make life meaningless. Indeed, if everything is
transitory and corruptible then life is meaningless. Paul Tillich, in his
powerful and insightful work The Courage to Be, writes of the three
types of anxiety which correspond to the three modes in which the threat of
nonbeing confronts the human. "Nonbeing threatens man’s ontic
self-affirmation, relatively in terms of fate, absolutely in terms of death.
It threatens man’s spiritual self-affirmation, relatively in terms of
emptiness, absolutely in terms of meaninglessness. It threatens man’s moral
self-affirmation, relatively in terms of guilt, absolutely in terms of
condemnation." Each of these, Tillich, affirms, belongs to life as such and is
not due to an abnormal state of mind as in neurosis. Tillich further points
out that each of these has been dominant at a particular period in the history
of humanity. But of these three, the anxiety of fate and death is the most
basic, most universal and inescapable. It is the anxiety of death that
overshadows all concrete anxieties and gives them their ultimate importance.
So we may say that death both gives life meaning and threatens it with
meaninglessness. We look for that which transcends death and
meaninglessness.
- In the Christian tradition death is known in two senses. The first is
ordinary death, that of the body. But it is the second, which is by far the
most important, the death of the spirit. The death of the spirit occurs as one
trusts, has as ultimate concern that which is not God. Thus in Scripture one
reads of those who are dead in their sin. It is not the active idolatry that
is the problem here; it is rather the ultimate and necessary disillusionment
and consequent anxiety and despair which occur when the idol collapses, as all
idols do. Following idolatry, one is always precipitated into the anxiety of
fate and death. The typical response is quickly to turn to another idol, find
another pseudo-source of meaning. But however we turn, again and again death
will shatter every false meaning, because "the depth and greatness of it
shatter our everyday world and exceed the powers accumulated by us in this
life to meet this world’s requirements." Time and space are death dealing; we
experience death repeatedly. For example, every parting from a loved one or
even a loved place when we feel we may never be there again, is an experience
of death, so we are often filled with sadness at such moments. And there is a
still more profound meaning here. "Death not merely makes life senseless and
corruptible: it is also a sign, coming from the depths, of there being a
higher meaning in life. Not base fear but horror and anguish which death
inspires in us prove that we belong not only to the surface but to the depths
as well, not only to temporal life but also to eternity." Thus it is that
death holds hope as well as horror for us, though not often recognized.
Meaning is to be found only in eternity, not in time, but eternity is reached
only by passing through death.
- What lies beyond death? What is paradise? These questions have puzzled,
plagued the mind of humans since we became self-conscious. According to the
contemplative tradition, the cosmic process starts from paradise and is going
on toward paradise. It is tempting also to discuss hell at this point, but the
brevity of this paper precludes more than a note. It was the entry of the
distinction between good and evil into the original paradise that brought hell
into being along beside paradise. That distinction was possible due to the
freedom that was part of creation. "The idea of hell as a final triumph of
God’s truth and justice is untenable and cannot reassure those who are in
heaven. Hell is bound to be a torment to heaven, and heaven cannot exist
beside it." It is profoundly unchristian to conceive of hell as a place of
just punishment for the evil people have done. Wanting the punishment of hell
for others is in radical contrast to Jesus "love your enemy" and his teaching
that God sends his rain on the just and the unjust. The essence of God is
love, and love knows no boundaries. Thus Jesus goes to the cross and enters
into hell for the sake of sinners.
- In our pain and suffering we are perpetually plagued with the dream of
recreating paradise, utopia, regaining the golden age. But there is a radical
difference between our usual dreams and plans for utopia and the true Kingdom
of god. In the original paradise there was no freedom and the paradise to come
includes the knowledge of freedom. "The paradise at the end of the cosmic
process comes after all the trials and with the knowledge of freedom." Jesus
said "be perfect as your father in heaven is perfect", but this goal is not
attainable in anyone’s lifetime. Perfection, fullness, completion imply
eternity. Paradise in eternity is after hell, after the experience and a free
rejection of hell. Our dreams of utopia are earthly as well as vain. Our
destiny is divinization; something that we cannot even imagine it is so beyond
our present. For example, to be divine is have inner knowledge, subjective
experience, of all that is and more. But just try to imagine being conscious
from the inside of atoms, stars, nebulae, and every creature. Sometimes in
dreams of flying, we experience for a moment what it might be to soar like an
eagle, or perhaps to swim joyously as a dolphin. For God nothing is objective,
all is known better than we know ourselves; known beyond the criteria of good
and evil, known with pure love. We come nearer to this concept when we think
of beauty, absolute, breath taking, divine beauty.
- Paradise comes not in time but beyond time, in eternity. Eternity is not
in the future, coming as a climax to a movement within time. Nor is eternity a
cessation of movement, a static achievement when creativity has ended. "It is
creative life of a different order, it is movement which is not spatial and
temporal but inward, symbolized not by a straight line, but by a circle, i.e.,
it is an inner mystery play, a mystery play of the spirit which embraces the
whole tragedy of the cosmic life. We must think of paradise as containing not
less but more life than our sinful world, not less but more movement—though it
is movement of the spirit and not of nature and is not based upon the
continuity of time." It is the paradox of experiencing infinity within time,
but within time we cannot break through to the beyond in fullness. As Berdyaev
notes, "A foretaste of paradise is given us in ecstasy, in which time, as we
know it, is rent asunder, the distinction between good and evil disappears,
all sense of heaviness is gone and there is a feeling of final liberation. The
ecstasy of creative inspiration, of love, of contemplating the divine light,
transfers us for a moment to heaven, and those moments are no longer in time.
But after a moment of eternity we find ourselves in the continuing time once
more; everything grows heavy, sinks down and falls prey to the cares and
anxieties of everyday life."
- What is behind the many millennial movements that have turned up in
Christian history repeatedly? Is there to be some thousand year reign of
Christ followed by the final judgment? As noted above, the notion of hell as
God’s punishment for the evil is a sub-Christian idea, created by the "good"
to revenge their feelings of neglect or pain at the hands of the "wicked". All
millennial movements are forms of expecting eternity within time. These
expectations are based on the idea that the Kingdom of god will come at the
end of the cosmic process, divine righteousness will prevail and the saints
will rule on earth. Oh, how this appeals to the egos of the "chosen".
Certainly the quest for the Kingdom of God lies at the essence of
Christianity, but "my kingdom is not of this world". The Kingdom of God pours
into the now moment, the eternal now, as with ecstasy, but its fullness waits
for us beyond the end of time. In a state of weakness, or inadequate faith
vitiated by sin, heaven and hell are projected into the outer world as an
objective sphere akin to nature.
- Finally, what can be said about God’s judgment? First that it is very
real, inevitable, but second, that it is the judgment of love not divine
retribution. We must realize that since God is God, the love of God will
prevail so powerfully that nothing will ultimately be lost. Moreover, God’s
judgment takes place in every moment, here and now, not something which comes
only at the end of time. In each new moment we are given the grace-filled
possibility to know who and what we are and what God requires of us. We are
confronted with the possibility of insight into our reality, warts and all,
but encompassed by love. However, that love is for the reality and not for the
persona that we pretend to be. God loves us as we are, not as we purport to
be. It is for this reason that getting confused about our identity, believing
our own p.r., is so tragic. This confusion is very common among "successful"
people, especially those who receive a lot of public approval, viz.,
politicians, CEOs, clergy, medical doctors, etc. But none are exempt. It was
perhaps this confusion that led Jesus to have such a big problem with the
"righteous" pharisees and others; they were like whitewashed sepulchres.
Sartre in his play No Exit, gives a vivid picture of those who cannot
accept themselves as they are. They are locked in by their own determination
to maintain their persona mask. God’s love is the acceptance of the real
person, but one must accept that acceptance of God and we are tragically free
not to do so.
- One final note on the nature of paradise; it transcends not only the
categories of good and evil, but those of the subjective and objective.
Ecstasy, bliss has been mentioned as a foretaste of paradise and it is a
prominent characteristic of these experiences, momentary though they be, that
the person feels identified with all things; the subjective and the objective
are transcended in unity; there is wholeness. But if paradise transcends good
and evil, what is to be done with evil? First, recognize the true source of
evil, the consequence of the division of consciousness and the trial of
freedom which began in the original paradise and ended it. For freedom to be
real, for our decisions to be meaningful, there must be the possibility of
evil, the entrance of non-being into the realm of being. Further, we must
realize that our definition of good and evil is not God’s definition. "The
Kingdom of God is not the kingdom of our good, but of the transcendent good,
in which the results and the trials of freedom assume other forms than they do
in this world." Note how this statement implies the continuation of the
development and perfection of consciousness beyond death.
- I will close this paper with a longer quote from Berdyaev whose insights
have greatly supported and bolstered my own in these matters. In his further
discussion of Christian consciousness, he wrote:
For Christian consciousness paradise is the Kingdom of Christ
and is unthinkable apart from Christ. But this changes everything. The cross and
the crucifixion enter into the bliss of paradise. The Son of God and the son of
Man descends into hell to free those who suffer there. The mystery of the cross
solves the chief contradiction of paradise and freedom. To conquer evil the Good
must crucify itself. The Good appears in a new aspect; it does not condemn "the
wicked" to eternal torments but suffers upon the cross. The "good" do not
relegate the "wicked" to hell and enjoy their own triumph but descend with
Christ into hell in order to free them. This liberation from hell cannot,
however, be an act of violence toward the "wicked" who are there. This is the
extraordinary difficulty of the problem. It cannot be solved by human and
natural means; it can only be solved through the God-man and grace. Neither God
nor man can do violence to the wicked and compel them to be good and happy in
paradise. But the God-man in Whom grace and freedom are mysteriously combined
knows the mystery of liberating the wicked. . . The wicked and those who are in
hell can only be won by the transcendent good, i.e., brought to the kingdom of
Heaven which lies beyond good and evil and is free both from our good and our
evil. . . This implies quite a different morality in this life. . .The morality
of the transcendent good does not by any means imply indifference to good and
evil or toleration of evil. It demands more and not less. . . Salvation is the
reunion of man with man and with the cosmos through reunion with god. Hence
there can be no individual salvation or salvation of the elect. Crucifixion,
pain and tragedy will go on in the world until all mankind and the whole world
are saved, transfigured and regenerated. And if it cannot be attained in our
world aeon, there will be other aeons in which the work of salvation and
transfiguration will be continued. That work is not limited to our earthly life.
My salvation is bound up with that not only of other men but also of animals,
plants, minerals, of every blade of grass—all must be transfigured and brought
into the Kingdom of god. And this depends upon my creative efforts. |
