Overcoming the fear of death

“Death, be not proud,” begins the most famous poem of 16^th-century English poet John Donne, ”though some have called thee mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.”

“Death, Be Not Proud,” is a metaphysical poem that interprets death as a powerless, temporary transition to eternal life.

In “A Psalm of Life,” 19^th-century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, “Dust thou art, to dust returnest, was not spoken of the soul.”

With “All Saints Day” coming soon, these old poems remind us of the untimely demise of the late Panay News founder Danny Fajardo after undergoing a heart bypass surgery some years ago.

“Us” here refers to Daily Guardian founder Lemuel Fernandez, this writer and many other local journalists who had worked for his newspaper.

The last time Danny telephoned me, it was to say that he was about to undergo an emergency open-heart surgery at Asian Hospital and Medical Center.

“Why not seek a second doctor’s opinion?” I asked. “There ought to be non-invasive options.”

“No alternative to surgery,” he said calmly, adding that his surgeon had a good track record in operating on Jehovah’s Witnesses like him who are prohibited from undergoing whole blood transfusion.

Danny went on to say that he was prepared for whatever consequences. Like Christians from other sects, he had imbibed the belief in life after death. But as to what happens after death, opinions differ.

The concept of the conscious soul leaving the dead body originated in Egypt five centuries before the birth of Christ. In the Bible, King David propounds that men who stay alive after age 70 enjoy “bonus” years: “The days of our years are threescore years and ten, and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor and sorrow, for it is soon cut off and we fly away” (Psalm 90:10).

In other words, by the time we reach 70, we will have yielded to deteriorating eyesight and distinct physical deformities like wrinkled skin and graying or balding hair.

The Bible also states, “To everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: A time to be born and a time to die…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

Do we, like other animals, return to dust forever or move on to a higher plane of life?

All atheists agree that death is the end. But we believers disagree among ourselves as regards post-death existence.

The Bible offers no crystal-clear description of the post-earth future. There are cases when what is not written is more popular than what is written. While preachers agree that Jesus will come again to resurrect the dead, it runs against the traditional idea that the soul immediately leaves the dead body and ascends to another form of consciousness.

Roman Catholics visualize this ascent as an appointment with Saint Peter, who holds the key to our assigned rooms whether in heaven, hell or purgatory.

Purgatory is fundamentally understood as a state of transition where the souls of those who die in a state of grace undergo purification before they can enter either heaven or hell.

On the contrary, the Bible denies consciousness at the time of death: “For the living know that they shall die but the dead know nothing” (Ecclesiastes 9:5).

“His breath goeth forth, he returneth to earth; in that very day his thoughts perish” (Psalms 146:4).

If we firmly believe that spiritual immortality follows physical mortality, why are we afraid of death?

Is it because nobody up there has come down to tell us it was like?

I remember when my late father was suffering from lung cancer and eventually died in 1992 at age 72, he left behind an attaché case full of documents, including a printed tract with this quotation: “Come view the ground where I do lie. As you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you will be. Prepare for death and follow me.”