10 TIPS FOR FACING DEATH IN CHRISTIAN FORM

What we are called to do is to understand the true meaning of death.

Death frightens us all; Seeing us helpless and fragile generates uncertainty, questions, discomfort.

Often, evading the subject, we say that we still have a lot to do for that day, that we do not worry and when someone touches the subject we turn it off.

In reality, what we are called to do is to understand the true meaning of death, and for this we must review the following aspects that will give us a Christian view of it

• Recourse to the sacraments: Anointing of the sick, confession and communion.

When this moment is near, we must try to leave this world free of burdens and sins, receive the anointing of the sick, confess and communion. In this way, when death comes, it will be the encounter with Christ, who as Good Shepherd accompanies his sheep.

We must ensure that if a loved one or neighbor is in this situation, let us help by seeking or advising a close priest to visit the sick and to leave in the grace of God.

Let us personally remember to seek to live in communion with the Lord, to fulfill his commandments, and to confess and communion frequently for the love of our God, and considering that death itself may come upon us when we least expect it.

• Understand that death is a liberating state.

Christ wanted to deliver us with love and surrender. By resurrecting, He overcame death and we must live it by understanding that an earthly cycle ends and grace time begins with God and His heavenly court.

Let us remember that the death and resurrection of our Lord allows us to share eternal life with Him. Jesus tells us: "I am the Resurrection and the Life. He who believes in me, though he dies, shall live; And whoever lives and believes in me will never die "(John 11: 25-26)

• Understand that death is not a punishment but the entrance to eternal life.

Death entered the world to purify the sin we inherited from our first parents, we are all called to go with the Creator of life and render accounts of how we have lived on this earth. We will not necessarily face it when we are sick or old, it will be when we are called to encounter God the Father, perhaps in the least expected moment.

Our hope and joy is Christ who has redeemed us: "For the wages of sin is death, while the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Romans 6:23)

• Let us keep with love the memory of our departed loved ones.

Although they are no longer physically with us, all their teachings and shared moments live in our hearts, we always honor their memory as an invaluable treasure that will accompany us in our lives.

• Accompany, advise and help the relatives of the deceased.

When someone has been lost, we usually take refuge in loneliness, crying and silence, depression, lack of appetite and stress.

• Our Christian task is to accompany, advise and help the family, to remember with joy, trying to distract them and see in death not an end, but a continuance in the love of God, who has prepared a place for each one of us.

• Avoid falling into prolonged depression, seek spiritual help and support.

Although it hurts that a loved one has left and we feel a vacuum in that time and space that he shared with us, we must avoid falling into prolonged depressions, firstly because we know that the one who has left would not have liked to see us like this, Because we have the Christian hope that whoever has believed and lived in the Lord has eternal life in him.

If it is difficult for us to rise from the mourning, seek help from a priest or spiritual director to deal with the pain, it will be very helpful.

• Respect mourning and avoid talking about money or inheritance at the most sensitive moments.

• It is possible that the deceased person has left some assets that correspond to the children or people who share a consanguinity trait.

Everything has its proper time, and it is unfortunate to see families that, even when death has not occurred or is very recent, have quarrels over material issues. The Bible teaches us: "Since you have been raised with Christ, seek the goods of heaven where Christ sits at the right hand of God. Have your thoughts set on heavenly things and not on earthly things "(Colossians 3: 1-2)

• It is advisable to donate the clothes and things used by our deceased relative.

It is a good charity to donate the garments that the person used to a charity, home or shelter, in this way we will correspond with the work of mercy to dress the naked. Another reason is that many times these material things to which we attach ourselves do much harm, they do not allow us to overcome the pain caused by the loss and let our relative rest in peace.

Let us avoid falling into superstitious or New Age practices to mitigate our pain.
Some companies in their eagerness, not to share the pain but to profit from it, offer rituals that are not compatible with the true Christian life. For example: planting a tree with the remains of our relative, throwing the ashes to a lake to perpetuate their memory, create a virtual graveyard to visit online, or call a pet like the family related to reincarnation (which is incompatible with Our faith), etc. Pain can not divert us from our faith, our trust should always be in God and His promises, it is His grace that will help us to continue.

• Pray for the eternal rest of those who have left.

It is essential and the greatest work of love we can have with our loved one. In many of our Spanish-speaking countries it is customary, the day after the Christian burial, to gather around the prayer or "novenario" to help the deceased during the purification that corresponds to him in purgatory.

We must do it with great faith, offering the Eucharist for its eternal rest, praying the Holy Rosary, the Chaplet of Mercy, etc. It is our Christian duty to pray for one another: the Church purgative (those who have died), the Church militant (those who still have earthly life) and the Church triumphant (Saints who are with Christ.)

The Catechism of the Church tells us: This teaching also relies on the practice of prayer for the dead, which Scripture already speaks of: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] commanded to make this atoning sacrifice for the dead, That they might be delivered from sin "(2 Mk 12:46).

From the earliest times, the Church has honored the memory of the deceased and offered them suffrages, in particular the Eucharistic Sacrifice (DS 856), so that, once purified, they can reach the beatific vision of God. "(Num. 1032).

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