St. Paul teaches us in the Second Reading of the Mass1 that when the risen and glorious body is clothed with immortality, death will be definitively conquered. Then we can ask: "Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? For the sting of death is sin..... It was sin that introduced death into the world. When God created man, along with the supernatural gifts of grace he also gave him other gifts that perfected nature in the same order. Among these was that of bodily immortality, which our first parents were to transmit with life to their offspring. The sin of origin brought with it the loss of friendship with God and of this gift of immortality. Death, the stipend and wages of sin2, entered a world that had been conceived for life. Revelation teaches us that God did not make death, nor does he rejoice in the loss of the living3.
3 But, with sin, death came to all: "The righteous and the wicked, the good and the evil, the clean and the unclean, the one who offers sacrifices and the one who does not, die alike. The good and the wicked, the good and the wicked, the clean and the unclean, he who offers sacrifice and he who does not, die alike. He who swears, the same as he who fears the oath. In the same way men and animals are reduced to ashes and ashes. "4 Everything material will come to an end: each thing in its hour. The corporeal world and all that exists in it is doomed to an end. So are we.
With death, man loses all that he had in life. Like the rich man in the parable, the Lord will say to the one who has thought only of himself, of his own well-being and comfort: "You fool, whose wealth have you accumulated?5. Each one will carry with him only the merit of his good works and the debit of his sins. Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord. Even now the Spirit says that they may rest from their labors, since their works accompany them6. With death ends the possibility of meriting eternal life, as the Lord warned: then comes the night, when no one can work7. With death, the will is fixed in good or evil forever; it remains in friendship with God or in the rejection of his mercy for all eternity.
Meditation on our end in this world moves us to react to lukewarmness, to a possible lack of interest in the things of God, to attachment to things here below, which we will soon have to leave; it helps us to sanctify our work and to understand that this life is a short time to deserve.
We remember today that we are clay that perishes, but we also know that we have been created for eternity, that the soul never dies and that our own bodies will rise glorious one day to be united again to the soul. And this fills us with joy and peace and moves us to live as children of God in the world.
Hablar con DIos