Toward Easter - Daily Readings & Meditations for Lent 2025 - Day 31

Death has become something our modern world sanitizes with euphemisms and "celebrations of life." We avoid speaking directly about mortality, even among Christians. But what if our understanding of death is fundamentally flawed?

The Gospel presents us with a profound truth about death – it's not the end of life, but merely a passage to something greater. When Jesus says Lazarus is merely sleeping before raising him from the dead, He's revealing something essential about our human condition. What we habitually call "life" in the natural sense isn't true life at all. True life is supernatural life, our participation in divine life.

This understanding transforms everything about how we approach death. For those who die in a state of grace, "life is changed, not taken away," as the beautiful preface of the Mass for the Dead tells us. Gone is the need to fear or avoid the subject of mortality. Instead, we can speak openly with our children about death, pray for those in their final agony, and remember that a "happy death" has nothing to do with physical comfort and everything to do with spiritual readiness.

During these final weeks of Lent, let's reclaim these powerful spiritual truths. Make time for devotions like the Stations of the Cross, especially on Fridays. Listen to the haunting beauty of the Stabat Mater. Most importantly, cultivate those daily practices that keep us mindful of our mortality without succumbing to fear: make an act of acceptance regarding your own death, foster the virtue of hope, pray for those approaching death, and remember the faithful departed through prayer, Masses, and indulgences.

What state do you hope to be in when your final moment comes? How might embracing rather than avoiding the reality of death transform your daily life? Join us as we continue our Lenten journey toward the mystery of Christ's death and resurrection.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meditation on Christian Death
• 4:17 Life Changed, Not Taken Away
• 5:47 Thoughts and Resolutions for Death
• 8:47 Modern Sanitization of Death
• 12:57 Teaching Children About Death Honestly
• 16:02 Stations of the Cross Recommendation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:47

Sancte, sancte, amare morti, decadast nos. Good morning on this Friday of the fourth week of Lent. We are on day 31 here, 31 days into Lent, which means we have what? 15 more after this, so just over two weeks left, guys. Today we will be talking about death, entry into true life. So, without further ado, I'll throw up the image on screen and we will get going here.

Speaker 1: 1:59

Friday of the fourth, we can lend death entry into true life. From the gospel of saint john, chapter 11. Chapter 11, 43-44. Jesus cried out with a loud voice Lazarus, come forth. And at once he who had been dead came forth, bound feet and hands, with winding bands, and his face was bound about with a cloth. Jesus said to them Unbind him and let him go. Lazarus had been dead for four days and by these simple words, lazarus, come forth. Jesus brought him back to life. What a scene. It was a new, undeniable witness to the divine power of Jesus. Undeniable witness to the divine power of Jesus.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Yesterday we meditated on the spiritual resurrections performed by Jesus over the course of the centuries. Let us meditate today on the sense of Christian death. To understand it, we have to remember that what we habitually call life is not true life. That is why, in today's Gospel, death is presented as a sleep. Jesus says that Lazarus sleeps and that he is going to wake him. In fact, true life is supernatural life, participation in the divine life. God alone, through his priests, gives true life, and it is that life which will allow us one day to share in heaven the very happiness of God. Consequently, natural death is not our final end. For all those who die in the state of grace, death is but a necessary passage toward a life much better than the one here below.

Speaker 1: 4:01

The preface of the Mass for the Dead expresses it in these words For thy faithful Lord, life is changed, not taken away. Lord, life is changed, not taken away. Lord Jesus, help me to make a beautiful act of self-abandonment in confidence, to prepare me to carry out, under the best conditions, my own passage to eternity. I know that, for Thy faithful, death is the beginning of the life for which Thou hast created me, and so I wish to work to foster in myself the hope and desire of heaven by leading a life which is always pleasing to thee. I will also try to pray especially for those in their last agony and for all those among my acquaintance who have already passed over the threshold of eternity, who have already passed over the threshold of eternity? And now our prayer. This comes from the decree of the Sacred Congregation for Indulgences back in March of 1904. And it says that you will attain a plenary indulgence at the hour of death if the intention of the prayer is not retracted. So, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen, o Lord, my God, I now, at this moment, readily and willingly accept at thy hand whatever kind of death it may please thee to send me, with all its anxieties, pains and sufferings. In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.

Speaker 1: 6:00

We have two thoughts today. The first from Charles D Foucauld the kingdom of heaven is approaching. Life is short, the figure of this world is passing away. Heaven is from St Bernadette, thought to mind. God alone is good and from Him alone do I await the recompense.

Speaker 1: 6:42

We have four resolutions 1. To make, with serenity, an act of acceptance of death. Number two To say, slowly, an act of hope to foster this virtue in ourselves. Number three 3. To pray for those in their last agony, and especially for those who have most need of divine mercy. 4. Not to forget our dear departed and to think of assuaging the pain of those who are in purgatory by gaining indulgences, by having masses assid for their intention and by reciting a short prayer every time we pass the cemetery, for example eternal rest grant unto them, o Lord. That's the reading for today.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Death is something we have so sanitized in our world today. I mean it's something the vast majority of people no longer even have funerals for, or we don't talk about the burial or things like that. We instead have celebrations of life right. So, even even at the at, you know, at the moment and after the moment of death, we make it about our natural life here on earth, and it's something I mean we even come up with different words and euphemisms for it. You know, passed away, you know they passed, they, whatever. We'll do anything except say so and so died. And it's something I've worked really hard to to talk with my kids about. Um, even I mean you, probably even before they could really even talk or really had an, you know could really understand I made sure that death was talked about.

Speaker 1: 9:36

You know, death of pets, death of family members, of loved ones, death. You know, the eventual deaths of their parents. You know me and my wife. It's just something that I mean. It is part of the world, um, it is part of life. Uh, you know, and we have to make sure that we don't we don't see it as the end of life, but, um, end of life, but, um, as father says here, as the necessary passage toward a life much better than the one here below, or much worse than the one here below, if you know, depending on your actions of we just, I don't know. We just need to be more open about death. I mean even supposed christians. Um, like I said, we'll have celebrations of life. Uh, it will not have funerals or will not discuss death openly and honestly, and I, I don't understand it.

Speaker 1: 10:53

It's something that in my family, we, we were always open, open about and honest about, um, um, and I don't have like a ton of wisdom, uh, on the subject in my family growing up and now in my, the family that my family that I'm raising, it is something we do just talk about, uh, just whenever it comes up, just openly, to the point where my kids probably seem weird to others when, when they're they are just so willing to mention death, or or those who have died, um, you know, and it's something they they honestly like think about and consider when talking, or those who have died. It's something they honestly think about and consider when talking about the future. They'll talk to my mom about what will happen when she dies. It just seems so different than the rest of the world, but to me it also just seems so different than than the rest of the world, but to me it also just seems so natural. So, yeah, the resolutions for today, you know, make an make an act of acceptance of death, make an act of hope, because you know, our hope is, is the virtue of hope is more or less having hope and what will happen after death. Right, praying for those in their last agonies, that's something that I make sure to do, often with my, my children, praying for those you know who, who are about to die, to make sure they have a happy death. I mean, that's another thing.

Speaker 1: 12:48

We've lost the whole notion of a happy death or of a good death. You know, in our modern world, a good death is dying while you're sleeping. That's considered a good death. No one considers what state your soul is in at the moment of death, no one cares. But you know, my kids know, they know what a happy death is. You know we've talked so much about, for instance, st Joseph being the patron of a happy death because he died in the arms of Jesus and Mary, and how having a happy death is dying in the arms of Jesus and Mary. No matter how it is, you might die, but if you die in a state of grace, you die in the arms of Jesus and Mary. You die in the arms of Jesus and Mary, and we need to get back that notion of a happy death, that a happy death is possible. It's not about how you die, it's about the state in which you die, and someone dying in agony of cancer can have a much happier death, depending on how they they lived, than someone who dies in their sleep.

Speaker 1: 14:15

And then, of course, praying for those in purgatory is an absolute must. Every time we go by a cemetery, we make the sign of the cross and say a short prayer, and that's something that we need to get back into our you know, our little tea traditions in just daily actions. But that is what I have for you today. Tomorrow, saturday, the 4th week of Lent, we will be talking about love and obedience. So I hope you have a good Friday today.

Speaker 1: 15:04

So yesterday we had our last episode of trivia on the channel because we want to pass it off to younger guys with new channels, because it really is a good format for a new channel. So you, you know we had a bunch of uh of younger guys on to play trivia and um in this for any, if any of those younger guys are listening. This is not not a shot at you guys at all. Um, it really is not. But one of the questions was what's the first station of the cross? And no one knew, and you know a lot of them were converts.

Speaker 1: 15:47

So I'm not going to, like I said, I'm not going to hold it against any one of them, of course, but, um, but stations of the cross was such a big part of my life growing up, was was such a big devotional uh that to me it's crazy that a Catholic doesn't know the first station of the cross. And a few of them were, were were Byzantine Catholic too, and I know it's a Latin devotion and not a Greek devotion. So, once again, I'm not holding it against any of you If you're listening. I'm really not and I'm not even trying to make fun of you guys, um, but I am stressing the, the importance of of stations um, especially during Lent, um, especially on Fridays during Lent. So, everyone listening, if you can get to stations today, pray, pray the stations across the way of the cross, yeah, and just to show you guys, I'm not holding it against you.

Speaker 1: 16:48

I'll also make fun of my co-host, who did not know what the the stop out mater was, what the the stabat mater was. Anthony, uh, didn't know what the stabat mater was, um, which it's not a chant, um, it's really like a, a polyphonic uh hymn, but, if you so it, that is usually traditionally sung um between the stations at the stations of the cross. So if you're not aware of what the Stabat Mater is, if you're looking for something to listen to today especially, you know, or on a Friday during Lent, or just during Lent at all, I would highly suggest listening to the Staba Mater. Specifically, my favorite version is the one by I'm going to absolutely butcher pronouncing this, but Giovanni Pergolesi.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Pergolesi um. Pergolesi was um, an italian composer, absolutely brilliant, genius, genius composer, who died at like, oh man, he was really young when he died. He was 26 when he died, um, but just do a search in, like apple music or or youtube music or wherever. Wherever you listen to your music, spotify, do a search for uh pergolesi, which is p-e-r-g-o-l-e-s-i. Pergolesi stabat mater, s-t-a-b-a-t. Stabat mater, m-a-t-e-r. So perolesi Stabat Mater, and it is hauntingly gorgeous and it's perfect to listen to in the background throughout Lent, but so okay. So that's everything I have Get to stations tonight, if you can, and I'll see you all tomorrow morning.