The Last Things

“For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world, and they who are in his possession experience it.” (Wisdom 2:23-24)

“For it is appointed for men to die once; then after this, the judgment.” (Hebrews 9:27)

     Death is a reality in human life. All men are confronted with the reality of their own death, which can come at any time in any way and cut them off forever from the land of the living. Man lives his days under this inevitable shadow. Rich or poor, of whatever nation or race, death levels all people in the end. “For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow, and there is no return from our death, because it is sealed up and no one turns back” (Wis. 2:5).

     Despite pleasant sounding platitudes about “death being part of life” and death  being natural, the Catholic Church teaches that death is not natural; i.e., it was not part of God’s original creation. Death came as punishment for sin. Man was originally created with an immortal soul and a body that was meant to live immortally as well; through the sin of our first parents through the envy of the devil, death entered the world (Wis. 2:23-24). St. Paul reaffirms this in the New Testament, where he says “sin came into the world through one man and death through sin” (Rom. 5:12) and a little later says, “the wages of sin is death” (Rom. 6:23). In the case of those justified by grace, death loses its judicial character and becomes a mere consequence of sin.