Death is the most powerful uniting factor of all living creatures. We cannot escape the perpetual presence of death, but we are also always free to access its transformational power. While Western society tends to ignore death and keep it shielded from most peoples’ consciousness, developing awareness of our own mortality lends to a liberating experience that results in immensely fulfilling rewards. This newfound awakening of our physical mortality paradoxically serves to accentuate the precious quality of life and encourages the execution of authentic, purposeful living. Furthermore, the profound realization that our souls merely inhabit the physical body is a tremendously enlightening way to view the numbered days we have as human beings, as well as the joyful frivolity of all our moments and experiences of life in the grand light of eternity.
People fear what they do not understand, and death proves to be both the most feared and the most misunderstood element of existence. Those who no longer fear death and who understand its necessity are the ones who can truly express life in its fullest. In order to understand death, education must begin early. It is becoming more and more clear that “spiritual development is a vital process and resource in young people’s developmental journey from birth through adolescence” (Roehlkepartain, 2006, p.11). This spiritual dimension, which is prevalently discounted in human development, is necessary for a complete understanding of what it means to be human. It is in fact an immense injustice to withhold such vital awareness, especially to young people whose views are being shaped continuously. Spiritual development therefore must be accounted for; otherwise, an individual builds a viewpoint of the world and its workings “on an incomplete understanding of [his or her] humanness” (Roehlkepartain, 2006, p.11). Many professionals in human development, as well as those who study the process of death and dying, have proposed that death education should be an integral component of regular schooling. The marginalization of death education and its banishment from everyday life have caused made it so “people of all ages may have little opportunity to confront their feelings about death” (Benson, 2006, p.659). Consequently, the fear and anxiety associated with death is amplified. In light of this, the honoring of spiritual development is what allows the “process of growing the intrinsic human capacity for self-transcendence, in which the self is embedded in something greater than the self, including the sacred (Roehlkepartain, 2006, p.5). This self-transcendence is precisely the key to defeating death while still alive, and seeing reality for what it is as opposed to something that needs to be hidden and shielded from.
The simple fact remains death is a miracle just as great as birth. In fact, death is what makes life possible. In Ecclesiastes 12:7, we read: “Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit shall return unto God who gave it.” Similarly, Hinduism believes that “death is not an ending, but rather part of a continual cycle. [] Death, then, is seen as a companion in life” (Benson, 2006, p.647). The realization that we return back home to where we came from is a source of comfort, relief and hope that cannot be found in the merely physical world. To rob an individual of awareness of this dimension, as well as encourage the idea that staunch reasonability is the correct way of perception, would be an incredible disservice to him or her. We are naturally born with a trust in the process of life. Children are born without fears or anxieties about the end of their lives; for them, “death is not particularly fearsome; rather, it is something of a curiosity” (Benson, 2006, p.644). With this same open mind, death can actually be calmly and joyously accepted. In Luke 23:43, Jesus answers to the thief who is crucified with him: “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Indeed, this paradise is the hope we need as seemingly limited human beings in order to realize the truth of our existence—and that is one of an eternal and everlasting nature.
Works Cited
Roehlkepartain, E., Benson, P., King, P., & Wagener, L. (2006). The Handbook of Spiritual Development in Childhood and Adolescence. Thousand Oaks, California: SAGE Publications.
Feldman, R. (2006). Development Across the Life Span (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson/Prentice Hall.
