On Death

Holy Saturday is a weird day to write about death, but I found it appropriate as Jesus is technically dead for the whole day, thus it allows for a basic exploration about what it means to die and how non-being appears to us.

To be brief, death is the non-existence/appearance of a particular person or animal. Only things which are animated can technically die. This is why Jesus' death is important for the Christian faith as to die shows He was human. Without death, Jesus does not experience full finitude. But apologetics aside what we're exploring is the lack of animation and the darkness this creates in human persons.

Everyone has some fear of not existing. People make displays of power, money, progeny, etc for people to remember them when they are gone. In this way, people try to make their life extend beyond their own human finitude. Jesus did not have such power, progeny, or money in His ministry, so the death of a peasant in the ancient world seems like it should have little meaning. The fact that He was tried as a criminal also adds to the lack of meaning, just like so many other non-Roman citizens. (Because Romans couldn't be crucified, they saved that for the foreigners, kind of a ancient day hazing of sorts.)

Also, death is something which is communal. The death of the other reminds me of my own death (Levinas). The disciples also feared Jesus' death because His non-existence makes it appear that the promise of life and restored order is gone. It appears hard to restore kingdoms when the charismatic leader is dead and does not exist. The idea of Resurrection seems far away when one peers on a grave and sees a giant stone rolled in front of a cave to signify the grave. Dead Jesus, D-E-D Dead. No respawn, no extra lifes, just dead. Well, sort of... (Well, see more tomorrow about this.)

However, appearance is not the only reality. True, it is the only reality we can see, thus phenomenology gains its strength as a philosophical discipline as it deals with what we can see. What we learn on observation is that with every phenomenon there is an unseen parts of the phenomenon (notably, the idea that many people can look at the same event or symbol and see many different things.) Therefore, the unseen presence of death is that a community can embrace death as a communal strength. People come together when people die, and Jesus was no exception. On this day, we remember Jesus' death as a sign for people to gather together and mourn the loss of someone who had hoped to save a people who feared God. By faith, we all know the end of the story is different, but the disciples didn't know this. Part of our meditation must be to explore that this is the end, there is no mission, kingdom of God, or promise. The reality of Jesus' death is that the disciples appeared wrong. On top of mourning the loss of a friend, having one's trust seemingly betrayed is difficult. But again, this isn't the end of the story, all we see is what appears.

(Note: Most people are already celebrating Easter Vigil by the time this will post, but let's have some fun with the reflection.)