Pope Francis at morning Mass said that we should ask for three graces to the Lord: "The grace to die at home, within the Church; the grace to die with hope, and the grace to leave behind a beautiful legacy, a human legacy, a legacy made from the witness of our Christian life."
To live our whole life within the Church, as sinners but not as corrupt traitors, and with an attitude of hope that allows us to leave a legacy, not of material wealth, but of a witness to holiness. Pope Francis reflected on these “great graces” at the Mass he celebrated on Thursday morning, 6 February, in the Chapel of Santa Marta.
The Holy Father focused his homily on the mystery of death, referring to the First Reading (Kings 2:1-4,10-12) in which he said, “we hear the story of David’s death”. “We remember the beginning of his life, when he was chosen and anointed by the Lord”, when he was just “a little boy”. “After only a few years he began to reign”, but he was still only “a boy, at 22 or 23 years of age”.
David’s whole life was “a path, a journey he had made at the service of his people”. And “it ended just as it had began”. It is the same with our lives, said the Pope. In our lives too we “begin, walk, go forward and finish”. Thinking of David’s death “from the heart”, the Pope offered three points of reflection. First, he pointed out that “David died in the bosom of the Church, in the bosom of his people. Death did not find him outside of his people” but “within”. In this way he lives “belonging to the people of God”. It is true that David “had sinned: he called himself a sinner”. But “he never left the People of God: he was a sinner, yes, but not a traitor”. This, the Pope said, “is a grace”. The grace to “remain in the People of God till the end” and “to die in the bosom of the Church, right in the midst of the People of God”.
Highlighting this aspect, the Pope invited everyone “to ask for the grace of dying at home: dying at home, within the Church”. He remarked that “this is a grace” that you “cannot buy” because “it is a gift from God”. We “ought to ask: Lord, grant me the gift of dying at home, within the Church”. Even if we are “all sinners”, we must never be “traitors” nor “corrupt”.
The Church, the Pope explained, “is a mother and wants it to be so”, even if “at many times dirty”. For it is she who “cleanses us: she is our mother, and she knows how to do so”. But it is up to us to “ask for this grace of dying at home”.
Pope Francis then proposed his second thought about David’s death. “In this story”, he noted “you can see that David is quiet, peaceful, and serene”. To the point where he “calls upon his son and says: I want to go the way of every man on earth”. In other words, David acknowledges: “now it is my turn!”. We then read in Scripture that “David slept with his fathers”. The king, the Pope explained, “accepted his death with hope, in peace”. And “this is another grace: the grace to die with hope”, with the “awareness that this is only a step” and that “we are awaited on the other side”. Indeed, even after death there will be “home, there will be family, I will not be alone!”. It is a grace to be sought especially “in the last moments of life, because we know that life is a struggle and that the evil spirit takes the spoils”.
The Holy Father also recalled the testimony of St Therese of the Child Jesus, who “said that, at the end of her life, there was a struggle in her soul, and when she thought about the future, about what awaited her after death, in heaven, she felt as if a voice was saying: but no, don’t be silly, darkness awaits you, only the darkness of nothing is awaiting you”. That, the Pope said, “was the devil who did not want her to trust in God”.
Therefore it is importance to “ask for the grace to die with hope, trusting in God”. But “trusting in God”, the Pope said, “must begin now, in life’s little things, and also in the big problems: we must always rely on the Lord. In this way, trusting the Lord becomes a habit and hope springs forth”. Therefore “to die at home and to die with hope” are “two things that we can learn from David’s death”.
The third reflection Pope Francis shared was that of “the problem of legacy”. In this regard, “the Bible”, he explained, “tells us that when David died, all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren came to ask for their inheritance!”. There are often “many scandals concerning inheritance, scandals that divide families”. But the inheritance that David leaves behind is not wealth. We read in the Scriptures: “And his kingdom grew strengthened”. David had “left a legacy of 40 years of government to his people and the people were strengthened”.
The Holy Father recalled “a popular saying” which says that “every man should have a child, plant a tree and write a book, so as to leave the best legacy”. The Pope invited everyone to ask themselves: “What legacy will I leave to those who come after me? Will I leave a legacy with my life? Have I done so much good that people want me as a father or mother?”. Perhaps I have not “planted a tree” or “written a book”, “but have I provided wisdom in life?”. The real “legacy is that of David” who on the verge of death told his son Solomon: “You are a strong and capable man. Obey the law of the Lord, your God, proceeding in his ways and executing his laws”.
David's words help us to understand that the real “legacy is the witness we leave to others as Christians”. There are indeed some people who “leave great legacies: we think of the saints who lived the Gospel with such force ... leaving us a way of life, a way of living life as a legacy”.
In conclusion the Pope summarized his three points and turned them into a prayer to St David, that he “grant us these three graces: to ask for the grace to die at home, within the Church; to ask for the grace to die with hope, with hope; and to ask for the grace to leave behind a beautiful legacy, a human legacy, a legacy made from the witness of our Christian life”.
--7 February 2014
Three graces to ask for at the time of death
On the mystery of death
In the face of death the enigma of human existence reaches its climax. Man is not only the victim of pain and the progressive deterioration of his body; he is also, and more deeply, tormented by the fear of final extinction. But the instinctive judgement of his heart is right when he shrinks from, and rejects, the idea of a total collapse and definitive end of his own person. He carries within him the seed of eternity, which cannot be reduced to matter alone, and so he rebels against death. All efforts of technology, however useful they may be, cannot calm his anxieties; the biological extension of his life-span cannot satisfy the desire inescapably present in his heart for a life beyond this life.
Imagination is completely helpless when confronted with death. Yet the Church, instructed by divine revelation, affirms that man has been created by God for a destiny of happiness beyond the reach of earthly trials. Moreover, the Christian faith teaches that bodily death, to which man would not have been subject if he had not sinned, will be conquered; the almighty and merciful Saviour will restore man to the wholeness that he had lost through his own fault. God has called man, and still calls him, to be united in his whole being in perpetual communion with himself in the immortality of the divine life. This victory has been gained for us by the risen Christ, who by his own death has freed man from death.
Faith, presented with solid arguments, offers every thinking person the answer to his questionings concerning his future destiny. At the same time, it enables him to be one in Christ with his loved ones who have been taken from him by death and gives him hope that they have entered into true life with God.
Certainly, the Christian is faced with the necessity, and the duty, of fighting against evil through many trials, and of undergoing death. But by entering into the paschal mystery and being made like Christ in death, he will look forward, strong in hope, to the resurrection.
This is true not only of Christians but also of all men of good will in whose heart grace is invisibly at work. Since Christ died for all men, and the ultimate vocation of man is in fact one, that is, a divine vocation, we must hold that the Holy Spirit offers to all the possibility of being united with this paschal mystery in a way known only to God.
Such is the great mystery of man, enlightening believers through the Christian revelation. Through Christ and in Christ light is thrown on the enigma of pain and death which overwhelms us without his Gospel to teach us. Christ has risen, destroying death by his own death; he has given us the free gift of life so that as sons in the Son we may cry out in the Spirit, saying: Abba, Father!
--From the pastoral constitution on the Church in the modern world of the Second Vatican Council
SHOW ME HOW SHORT LIFE IS
Then I spoke out loud:
“Lord, make me know my end.
Let me know the number of my days,
so that I know how short my life is to be.”
All the length of my days is a handsbreadth or two,
the expanse of my life is as nothing before you.
For in your sight all men are nothingness:
man passes away, like a shadow.
Nothingness, although he is busy:
he builds up treasure, but who will collect it?
(Ps 38:4-7)
St Vincent de Paul entered on his agony in the night of the 26th to 27th [of September, 1660]; an attempt was made to rouse him from his sluggish sleep, devout aspirations were suggested to him which at first he repeated; but he was tired. “Enough,” he said. Then he went on “Credo. Spero. I believe. I hope. Jesus.” At about half-past four in the morning he died in his chair, near the fire, fully dressed, without effort or convulsion, his face entirely at peace. [pp. 46-47]
(St Vincent de Paul. From Jacques Delarue, The Holiness of Vincent de Paul, Geoffrey Chapman Ltd, London 1960, 132 pp)
7 Qui confidunt in virtute sua
et in multitudine divitiarum suarum gloriantur.
8 Etenim seipsum non redimet homo;
non dabit Deo propitiationem suam.
9 Nimium est pretium redemptionis animae eius:
ad ultimum deficiet,
10 ut vivat usque in finem nec videat interitum.
11 Et videbit sapientes morientes;
simul insipiens et stultus peribunt
et relinquent alienis divitias suas.
They trust in their own strength
and glory in their great riches.
But, after all, man cannot redeem himself,
he cannot ransom himself before God.
The price of his soul’s redemption is too great, he cannot pay it –
the price of eternal death avoided.
He will see that even the wise die;
the foolish and the stupid too will perish,
and their riches will pass to others.
(Psalm 49:7-11)