Why we have removed the sense of death

We chase an earthly eternity that doesn't exist. Yet only death teaches us not to waste our lives.

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rejection of death
It's not easy to talk about death. It's scary, we never want to feel it close, it's associated with sad, depressive thoughts, and a pain in living. And yet the death It's an integral part of life: like pain and joy, life and death are inseparable. Already on Earth. Then, believers have the advantage of believing in eternity, where we will all meet again.

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WHY DID WE REMOVE DEATH?

The mystery of death, of the After of the Afters, according to the extraordinary definition of the poet and philosopher Guido Ceronetti, has always fascinated mankind. It has permeated the pages not only of religious writings, but also of philosophy, literature, music, and the visual arts. Death has always been spoken of shamelessly. Socrates went so far as to maintain that for philosophers, there is no other concern than that of death and dying.

REFUSAL OF DEATH

With modernity, which has undoubtedly lengthened lifespan, with advances in medicine and technology, with the almost obsessive pursuit of "living longer and better," space has been created for the denial of death. To avoid seeing it, almost ignoring it. Death has become synonymous with sad thoughts, with pain, sufferingSo why even think about it? And not instead focus on the possibility of living longer and longer.

DEATH AND THE MEANING OF LIFE

Removing death is a great waste, very risky, if you think about it. For the simple fact that «only death teaches us not to waste our lives(Salvatore Natoli). Only the idea of ​​death, of the After-of-Afters, pushes us to the ambition of leaving a mark on our daily lives, of not being merely fleeting, invisible. To trace the profile of a life that is not empty, sterile, an end in itself. And even useless, therefore wasted.

We have relegated death to a medical problem, because a rampant narcissism, combined with an idea of ​​well-being that borders on the futile and unrealistic pursuit of (semi-)immortality, leads us to consider the end of life almost as an unexpected event. Where the opposite is true: life and death are two mysteries, intertwined with each otherWe are no longer able to consider dying, regardless of our religious beliefs, as a part of life. And so we remove the After-of-Afters from the agenda of our often frantically sterile and empty thoughts.

THE MYSTERY OF DEATH

I recommend reading these two recently published books, which are very different, but similar in their approach, also linked to the analysis of the spirituality of man that we must recover. Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia has written a splendid, even poignant, text entitled Sister Death, dignity of living and dying (Mondadori editions) while Cardinal Camillo Ruini published Is there an afterlife? Death and hope (also this Mondadori).

Paglia and Ruini, two characters so distant in their profiles, even polar opposites in some respects, come together in an attempt to answer those questions we shouldn't ask ourselves only when we feel we're at the end of our journey. Questions that require time, reflection, listening, long, unfocused thinking. The cornerstones of a true life, lived and not wasted.

DEATH AND SENSE OF LIMITS

Already in the time of the Greeks, long before the advent of Christianity which brought to the table the theme of faith in the resurrection, and therefore in eternal life, the meaning of death (thanatos), contrasted with the sensual energy of life (Eros) It was a powerful antidote to recognize, during one's earthly life, the sense of limitation. And not to overflow into'hybris, arrogance, the unscrupulous excess that eschews all natural law, the denial of any sense of limits. All elements that the Greeks, before the Christians, considered a challenge to the gods and man's worst sin.

THE INGREDIENTS OF HAPPINESS:

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