Memento Mori

Life is a death sentence. The statement, “from the moment we start living, we are dying,” is no less true for being a cliché. When, after being sentenced to execution, Thomas More said, “Death…comes for us all, yes even for kings!” he was not, even then, showing malice towards Henry VIII. He was simply stating a fact with the same ready wit and candor he had displayed throughout his life. Artists often included skulls in their in their portraits of saints, these were known as a “memento mori,” a remembrance of death. They were meant to serve as not a remembrance of death in general but of the person’s particular death, of the individual’s mortality. For Catholics, a crucifix should serve, in part, to teach this same lesson. The author of life Himself is dead upon the cross. Death is inevitable.

And yet, that is not the full, nor the most important lesson of a crucifix. In looking upon a crucifix we are meant to learn the much more important truth of God’s great love for us. He will do anything, suffer anything, to save us when we are lost. God did not intend for us to die. Now that death has entered the world through our sin, God has come to conquer death, to rob it of its power. Death, though inevitable, is not lasting. In truth, death is but a moment and it is what happens on either side of that moment that matters. How we live before death leads to what we will experience after death. What happens after death we can only contemplate by faith, but what happens before is ours to determine. The true purpose of a memento mori was not only to remind us that we must die, but more importantly that we must live, and more importantly still, that how we live matters.

Most of us will not be perfect at the moment of death, though, by the grace of God, we can hope to not be in a state of mortal sin either. Imperfect but not damned to Hell, we must ask what happens to us. The Church’s teaching on Purgatory offers an answer to that question. After death we are purified, go through a process of purgation, are made ready for our Heavenly homeland where there is no spot or blemish, no imperfection.

Because the Body of Christ is One, we who make up that body are connected, are able to assist one another through our prayers and through the sacrifices we make, united to the One sacrifice of Jesus Christ. That connection does not end at death, rather the souls in Heaven, saints worshiping before the throne, intercede for us with perfect charity, strengthened by the grace of living in the presence of God. We in turn can, and should, pray for the souls in Purgatory, those who are being made ready for Heaven. God has no need of our assistance in perfecting these souls, but in His great love He allows us to participate in this work, to join our small sacrifices to His. Joined to His they become meritorious and effective, our prayers become powerful, filled with His strength.

As we pray for others, while the Saints at the same time pray for us, we are prepared little by little each day for that final day. May today be a day on which we are made ready for the moment of death and for the life unending that comes after it.