It was not long ago that I attended a good neighbor’s funeral. As mourners and friends one by one left the cemetery I decided to stay and visit the graves of my own friends and relatives. I also tarried to note the many whose deaths have not been announced in obituaries, as if they have come and left in silence after making their marks in this world.
Later
I sat at a bench up a hill overlooking the graveyard to enjoy the cold
afternoon breeze and for even a moment spend time with those who have once been
with us, recalling how they have lived, touched our lives, and perhaps
understand the reason why they have lived in this generation.
It
was so comforting to reflect and appreciate that life for contemporaries would
be different without them. Truly each
one of us has a purpose for others that God chose us to be here at a precise
period, that we should not choose to ignore and waste the opportunity given to
serve others to the fullest, and perhaps to make a difference.
I
left the dead in their silence just before darkness has completely devoured the
light, but like the cold wind at dusk, a question lingers on my mind, how well will I be remembered when I too had
said goodbye?
Had
I done enough? Or had I done enough to create misery, cheated, and oppressed as one
had recently done even on his own kins whom he looked down on as “the needy”? It’s a pity that he preferred money over
family, relations, wealth over respect, and pseudo fame over morals by virtually
stripping the clan of its filial identity.
Alas,
like him many have not made use of the little time we are privileged to enjoy,
but instead wasted it in life up a pedestal, looking down on others,
unforgiving of trivial mistakes that others may commit. While others act as if they owned God, or act
as if they themselves are gods because of political patronage.
It
is not rare to meet people of this kind even at supermarket checkout counters.
Mark
Anthony (William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar, Act III, Scene 2) in his
discourse on the murder of Julius Caesar said that “The evil that men do lives
after them; The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with
Caesar.” And so let it also be with the
proud and arrogant.
More
importantly, then is how well or how meaningful one has lived his life, and the
worth of a man is measured in his interment.
Life is as important as mortality and logically one cannot be divorced
from the other. We have the sole option for
the world to remember us for our wickedness.
To
be human or be society’s nuisance is not a pre-destination. There is no such thing as pre-destination as
many claims, citing the role of Judas Iscariot in Christ’s passion. Has it not that God has given us intellect
and free will to course our own life?
Death
is a certainty and is in accordance with God’s plan. But even in death, God respects man’s free
will when to “cross the light”. Man
does not have the mandatory forty days to roam the earth after death as
commonly believed. Many souls of the
departed stay long enough because of unfinished business, or just long enough
to see that those left behind are doing fine.
It
is hard to believe unless one may have experienced encounters with those who
are gone. The repentant thief may have
been in paradise immediately upon his death as Jesus has promised, but others
have lingered on.
Jesus
may have known that Judas will betray Him but it was not pre-destination. Only Jesus as God and man knew what is
in every man’s heart.
God
knew each of us; what our strengths and weaknesses; abilities and limitations
would be. He knew us in this way even before we were born. "Now the word of the Lord came to me
saying, 'Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I
consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations." (Jeremiah
1:5).
So
is Judas in hell? Yes, the Pharisees
were just waiting for the right time to arrest Jesus, which even prior they
already attempted to kill Him only that Jesus has slipped away. There was no need for Judas to betray Jesus.
Taking
one’s life is a manifestation of remorse, which would be absent if one has not
acted of his own free will.
Thus
Jesus prays for His apostles, “Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name
which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping
them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of
them perished but the son of perdition so that the Scripture would be
fulfilled (John 17)”.
Like
life, death and the afterlife have always been a mystery to many, and as an
inevitable reality, death is certain all of us have to face at a stretch we
know not when, while many see death as something that can be avoided or
postponed.
The
thought of one’s death is chilling, with the prospects of pain and struggles,
and even of leaving a comfortable life or a family.
What
bothers some, myself included, is the uncertainty of where to after. Death may
be an adventure that no mortal has yet experienced but what lies ahead when we
believe in hell and purgatory as much as we believe in heaven?
Will
we get to join the “banquet” or be thrown out in the dark where “there will be
wailing and gnashing of teeth”?
Even
great minds and men of great talents have contemplated death.
Wolfgang
Amadeus Mozart (Composer and Musician, 27 January 27, 1756 - December 5, 1791)once wrote in his letter to
Leopold Mozart, “As death, when we come to consider it closely, is the true
goal of our existence, I have formed during the last few years such close
relationships with this best and truest friend of mankind that death's image is
not only no longer terrifying to me, but is indeed very soothing and consoling,
and I thank my God for graciously granting me the opportunity...of learning
that death is the key which unlocks the door to our true happiness. I never lie
down at night without reflecting that —- young as I am — I may not live to see
another day. Yet no one of all my acquaintances could say that in the company I am
morose or disgruntled.”
In
the same perspective, Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer,
March 6, 1475 - February 18, 1564) once wrote
“If life pleases us, death, being made by the hands of the same Creator, should
not displease us”, which perspective may perhaps had inspired him to portray in
“Pieta” a youthful and serene countenance of the Blessed Virgin Mary contemplating
on the lifeless body of her Son.
In
sharp contrast to Mozart and Michelangelo’s resignation to man’s destiny, Dylan
Thomas (Welsh poet, 1914–1953) wrote, “Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and
rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
Unless we truly understand death, we can
never expect to understand life, and unless we accept death we can never
appreciate life. It is unfortunate
perhaps that many have considered death as a backdoor to escaping life’s
realities or an exit from the harshness of inhumanities or to keep a code of honor
as in some cultures.
One
of my favorite songs, which I also love to play on the keyboard on idle nights
is Don McLean's 1970s hit song Vincent (Starry, Starry Night), probably an
allusion to the actual life of Vincent Van Gogh (Dutch painter, 1853 – 1890).
The song’s lyrics
which I have quoted here, seem to describe the artist’s struggle against
madness or his comprehension of the spiritual essence of man and nature.
MacLean attempts to
show the incongruency of Vincent’s time with his genius, his passion, with
his personal preferences. “But I could have told you, Vincent, This
world was never meant for one as beautiful as you.”
“Now I understand what you tried to say to me
how you suffered for your sanity
how you tried to set them free.
They would not listen
they did not know how
perhaps they'll listen now.
For they could not love you,
But still your love was true.
And when no hope was left in sight
On that starry, starry night,
You took your life, as lovers often do.
But I could have told you, Vincent,
This world was never meant for one
As beautiful as you.
The Filipino Catholic nation will soon again “commune” with the departed, also an occasion to renew family ties.
A cemetery with a view. I purchased a plot here for that reason.
Even small creatures have a final resting place.
November
1 is celebrated in the Christian world as “all saints day” and the following
day as “all souls day”, the first is to
give honor to all souls that have ascended into heaven hence considered as
saints as distinguished from the Canonized Saints. The day is also to honor canonized Saints
whose feast day is not particularly commemorated in the Catholic calendar.
All
souls day on the other hand is a memorial day for all souls, most importantly
the most abandoned souls.
The
festivities have roots in western countries where the day is celebrated as Halloween,
“a contraction of “All Hallows’ Eve, observed in many countries on October 31, on the eve of the feast of All
Hallows (or All Saints), and the day
initiating the triduum of Hallowmas, the
time in the liturgical year dedicated to
remembering the dead, including saints (hallows),
martyrs, and all the faithful departed
believers (From Wikipedia).”
All
Saints Day, all souls day, and Halloween are in concept one and the same,
though the latter may have pagan origins.
Unfortunately in western cultures, the pagan aspect is more prominent,
which some colonial minds blindly follow in this country.
What
is supposed to be a commemoration of man’s triumph over death through Jesus
Christ’s redemption is celebrated with images of ghouls, demons, monsters and
witches of all kinds, as if God is inexistent.
Skeptics
may challenge the reality of life after death, the existence of heaven or hell,
and even the existence of God. But
beyond religion, beyond imaginations, but by reason alone there is God.
Old
folks many, many years ago have told off about a story of this prominent couple
who does not believe in God and had made a pact that whoever dies first should make it a point to come back and tell the
other spouse whether God exists or not.
It
was the woman who died first and sure enough, after the wake, the lady of the
house came back to tell her husband, “Believe that truly there is God.” And with that, a burning hand has left an
imprint on the wall.
It
may be a story that I came to validate later in my life.
A void will always be left by those who have
gone ahead but for us who believe and have faith "we should not be desolate
because it ended, instead, we should be exultant because it happened."
.
There are still questions about why good men die untimely.
This is the persistent question every
time a righteous person dies. Or is it because of the dead nobody speaks ill
of?
It is to my perception however that THE GOOD
HAS TO GIVE WAY OR SLIP INTO HISTORY SO THAT WE CAN NOW FOCUS ON OURSELVES AND
MEASURE UP TO THE STANDARD OF VIRTUES, AND MORALS SET BY THESE NOBLE MEN.
