Pope's General Audience: Death should not be feared. It opens the gates to Heaven




November 27, 2013. (Romereports.co) In his weekly general audience,  Pope Francis talked about the meaning of death. The Pope explained that even though death is often misunderstood, feared and denied, humans were designed to yearn for the infinite, found precisely in Eternal life.  

The Pope then added that if one lives with God, abandoning life can be done 'serenely and confidently into His hands at the moment of our death.'


 SUMMARY OF POPE'S CATECHESIS

Dear Brothers and Sisters:

In our catechesis on the Creed, we now reflect on “the resurrection of the body”. Christian faith illumines the mystery of death and brings the hope of the resurrection.  Death challenges all of us: apart from belief in God and a vision of life as something greater than earthly existence, death appears as wholly tragic; we misunderstand it, fear and deny it.

Yet human beings were made for something greater; we yearn for the infinite, the eternal. Christ’s Resurrection not only offers us the certainty of life beyond death, it also shows us the true meaning of death.

We die as we live: if our lives were lived in loving union with God, we will be able to abandon ourselves serenely and confidently into his hands at the moment of our death. Our Lord frequently tells us to be watchful, knowing that our life in this world is a preparation for the life to come.

If we remain close to him, especially through charity to the poor and solidarity with those in need, we need not fear death, but rather welcome it as the door to heaven and to the joy of eternal life.
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