Death, & the Fleetingness of the Human Body

What reality impacts you when, as it appeared, you see Dominic finally

lowered and by now surely covered with earth down there six feet under? To me what impacts me is the finality of the end of the Dominic we used to see. The big-framed or big-skeleton physical Dominic we are familiar with is gone! We had lost, among other things, that volunteer new treasurer of our praesidium, the family had lost their principal bread-earner & may I say, "father-pamperer" of his children. We had lost him, very accessible "jack-of-all-traits", to quote Oscar’s describing of him, generous donor to the community. Whether the yearly making of the Salubong stage props, the treating us with fresh kakanin during Legion meetings, or his, rather faithful, physical presences at the Comitium even when not an officer yet, or at the Rosary Crusade even if nobody noticed his presence there, or at our praesidium meetings when not held up by work.

Actually, I am not particularly dwelling on the physical Dominic’s going away. I am calling your attention to the end or terminating of the dead’s physical activities or earthly preoccupations. When somebody dies, it puts an end or boundary to whatever he physically does or does have. If you are big & strong, upon death you no longer are. If you are beautiful & attractive, upon death you no longer are. If you are quite well-off & have plenty of assets, upon death you part with them. If you relish distinctions & attention from people, upon death begins fading memory about you. And then again, so much memory or even no memory could even fade if you leave behind repelling deeds not worth remembering.

Except for the promised physical resurrection upon the Second Coming of Christ, when we die everything of our body dies. Things become finish, finitum, caput! Therefore, reckon how much worth there is in our preoccupation for everything physical or earthly based? The so-called temporal ‘glory’ of distinction, beauty, money, strength, or popularity in general? What use do we have for them when this body has stopped breathing?

For only one thing – in living – counts: our spirit! Only the spirit lives on; but then again, it also only counts if only it lives on to the better side of the after-life?

So to rephrase the statement, only one thing counts: a well safeguarded spirit, a saved soul. Ie. a good soul, a practicing believing soul. And this is where the body could and should have made its appropriate input: if the body has been used to witness to the practice of faith, or if the body was used for loving. But if it were spent only for selfishness; then, nothing doing for the spirit. But if the body has been instrumental in the spreading of the word of God, and of the love of God; then that spirit really lives on. Thus, for the individual that dies the end is not the end but the real beginning of true and lasting existence.

I am not in denial about temporal blessings, physical good stuff in living. After all, the body is a big part of our being human. It is just that we recognize and place importance of the soul versus our body as we’re prone towards inappropriate over-appreciation for our body or we seem to live, at times, merely to please our body, make everything expediently in favor of our body, or even go excessively way over bounds to satisfy our physical desires. Our perspective should never be that we live for our body or our physical satisfaction. We are to enjoy our body; but without in the least committing a dis-service to God, and the salvation of our souls. Our body or physical desires are not to become masters of our life.

Actually, the broader truthful perspective is actually not having to denigrate the value and useful worth of our body; but to understand and make sure to make happen our getting to live our faith or spiritually PER & THROUGH our sanctified body. Essentially it consists in our successfully transforming our sinful life into a born-again life mainly per daily or moment-to-moment tuning of our body with our believing spirit.

Prudentially, however, turning to the things of heaven than of the earth is our safer focus, ie. it serves us more to focus more on our immortal soul, not our mortal body.