Christian faith asks questions, seeks understanding, both because God is always greater than our ideas of God, and because the public world that faith inhabits confronts it with challenges and contradictions that cannot be ignored. It is my hope to offer some information and insights in response to questions about God, the Bible and faith, that will add to the conversation without offering set, absolute answers.
A Question of Death and Life
In my daily work as a hospice chaplain, a key part of interactions revolves around addressing questions of meaning and purpose in life. In my brief experience, I’ve been struck by how often these questions seem to have not ever been considered previously. In some sense, I think it is a more modern (post-modern?) consideration, and previous generations simply don’t have the explicit language to express it. That’s not to say that their lives didn’t have meaning, but they never had or took time to reflect and contemplate.
Frequently, questions of the afterlife come up, as you might imagine. Some have a firm vision and expectation, some more nebulous, and still some have no expectation at all. Its curious to observe how even people who readily define themselves as “non-religious/non-spiritual” have still held onto some notion of an afterlife.
Recently, though, in the course of an ongoing dialogue with someone under my pastoral care, I was presented with a question I had not anticipated, and frankly couldn’t answer, at least not in any sort of satisfactory way. The question DID, however, provide a new perspective to consider for the work I (and others) do, as well as a larger consideration for how we talk about our mortality and related hopes and fears.
“How will I know when I’m dead?”
It struck me because its something I hadn’t ever considered. So often, the focus is on whether or not the dying process is going to be fast or slow, peaceful or painful, and what happens afterward, with respect to afterlife expectations (heaven, paradise, nothingness, etc.) There seems a built in assumption for most that we will be fully aware and competent in the hereafter. People often “leapfrog” the discussion to the expectations of afterlife, because I don’t think the “dying” part is easy to consider or discuss. But, what about that liminal moment? How can we know whether or not we end up like Bruce Willis in “The Sixth Sense?”
There are certain, obvious clinical/medical signs that life has ceased. Of course, the sarcastic, smart-ass response to the question is something like, “Well, I don’t know how YOU’LL know, but I know how WE’LL know.” Obviously, that’s not very helpful.
No one whom I have ever encountered wishes for dying to be agonizing and fraught, and for obvious reasons. Generally, the largest majority wants to “go to sleep.” Is that really what it is, or will be, like? A gentle fading into a different state of being or non-being? Still, how will we know?
Worth noting, I think, that I don’t imagine this type of consideration being too applicable too sudden/tragic/violent/traumatic deaths, but also can’t completely rule it out.
Of course, I suppose I could simply delve into the many “near death experiences” that have been asserted, reported, published, movie-fied, and whatever. But, I’m honestly skeptical.
Not to mention, in a bit of a digression, that to my knowledge most of those near-death tales are rooted, framed and interpreted through an exclusively Christian lens/filter. I’m left curious and wondering if adherents of other religious traditions have these experiences and I just haven’t heard about them, or if this is a phenomenon unique to Christian sects. Perhaps, if I can manage the time and effort, I will do some indepedent rsearch and post my findings in a follow-up entry.
In Christian and Hebrew scriptures, we have accounts of the dead being brought back to life: Elijah and the Zarephath widow’s son (1 Kings 17), the widow of Nain’s son (Luke 7), Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5, Luke 8) and our dear friend Lazarus (John 11). From the perspective of Christian faith and spirituality, none of these, not even Jesus himself are recorded as having discussed their dying moments. I have to believe they MUST have. But then I wonder, were they even AWARE of what had transpired?
It seems, based on my scope of experiences, that people are self-aware and can recognize that they are actively dying, even if/when they aren’t able to verbally communicate it. But the question of the actual moment of death, and any awareness related therein, seems unanswerable.
Perhaps, I’m asking the wrong question. Maybe, this doesn’t merit even this much attention. But, I haven’t been able to shake the question, since it was asked. But I suppose it is one of the things I will know, when I know.