IS THERE really a need to visit the dead? This is a question I ask myself as I observed the vibrant economic activities that abound our cemeteries on All Saints’ and All Souls’ days. The way I see it, it is apparent that it is the living who are concerned with the dead and not the other way around.
“Concern” is basically a human expression. Whether the souls or spirits up above are concerned with us, we “really” do not know. I have said in my previous column that we Christians believe in the Communion of Saints. That the dead pray for us is therefore a matter of faith, not a scientific truth. It is an expression of our belief, which in the end can in no way be verified.
But what about people who do not believe? What about those who believe that there is nothing after or beyond this world? I ask these questions there is always that someone in our circle who does not believe or is at least suspicious of afterlife. In fact, there is an increasing number of people in the postmodern condition who have strong doubts about the meaning of life and beyond. I have heard and have been asked by students, friends, and even family members with questions, which according to them are troubling.
And because I find it pointless to discuss with non-believers things that are matters of faith, I would lead them to matters where common ground for understanding would be possible between or among peoples of differing perspectives.
I would often redirect the discussion to life in the here and now rather than whatever we may or may not have in the hereafter. I would tell a student or anyone who does not believe in the afterlife to reflect on whatever is existentially meaningful.
The reason why we find life meaningful is because we see a continual and increasing definition of it. Living may not, in just a single instance, have an immediately available definition. But at the very least living makes sense as it moves towards a desired definition.
The day we stop seeking our life’s definition is also the day when we start to question why we continue to live. Precisely, what is the purpose living a life that is not defined by anything more so a life that does not mean anything?
There are some things in life that we love. But for some reasons they cannot be ours. It can be that we love them but they don’t love us back. Or it can be that they love us so much that we cannot recognize their importance until they are lost. The moment they are lost, we start to look for them but then we just have to face the truth because love and truth always go together.
At the end of the day, life in the here and now is the life of the living. The dead mean to us because we live. Because we are alive, the lives of the dead that actually belong to the past make meaning in relation to our ongoing search for definition. For them we believe that there are still reasons to live. When we die, the living who would stay behind will have to do the same for us. At least, that is what we hope.
The German philosopher Martin Heidegger once said: “The moment we are born we are old enough to die.” In a world where people and cultures continue to seek how to avoid death and its eventual earlier arrival, it is important to remind ourselves that sometimes we just have to accept its reality. Death is the most real of all realities. In fact, of all the human possibilities it is that which is most certain. Death is not even a possibility it is a certainty.
So before it arrives, live life. Make meaning while one is living. All the joys, happiness, hopes, victories, and aspirations are meaningful not for the dead but the living.