{"id":3825,"date":"2020-04-26T00:54:39","date_gmt":"2020-04-26T00:54:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=3825"},"modified":"2025-04-10T14:08:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T14:08:41","slug":"happy-death","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/happy-death\/","title":{"rendered":"Happy Death?!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Philippe<\/a><\/p>\n

“Happy death” sounds like an oxymoron. Like cold fire, which turns out to be Shakespearean.<\/p>\n

“…Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health!…”
\n(“Romeo and Juliet,” Act I, Scene I<\/a>, Romeo; Shakespeare (1597))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

A happy death is also something Catholics pray for. It’s very much a part of “Catholic culture.”<\/p>\n

I expected to find detailed discussions of it in the Church’s assorted declarations, apostolic exhortations and encyclical letters.<\/p>\n

I didn’t.<\/p>\n

Maybe because it’s one of those things that’s obvious to folks who grew up in Catholic families. Or maybe not. Either way, growing up as a Protestant didn’t teach me what the term means. Not from a Catholic perspective.<\/p>\n

So I kept looking.<\/p>\n

Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1014, mentions an ancient litany of Saints that includes “From a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord;” and says that St. Joseph is the patron of happy death.<\/p>\n

That’s helpful, but not particularly informative.<\/p>\n

There’s no shortage of ‘happy death’ op-ed pieces in Catholic publications, which tells me that it’s part of contemporary Catholic culture.<\/p>\n

<\/a>“Everlasting Bliss”<\/h4>\n

\"Pieter<\/a>I also found “happy death” in a prayer to St. Joseph at the end of Pope Leo XIII’s 1889 “Quamquam Pluries” encyclical.<\/p>\n

“…Shield us ever under thy patronage, that, following thine example and strengthened by thy help, we may live a holy life, die a happy death, and attain to everlasting bliss in Heaven. Amen.”
\n(“Quamquam Pluries<\/a>,” Pope Leo XIII (August 15, 1889))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

That’s helpful, too. And tells me a little more about what, exactly, a “happy death” is.<\/p>\n

About the encyclical’s title: I don’t know much Latin, but I think “Quamquam Pluries”would be “However Many Times” in my native language.<\/p>\n

The late 19th century wasn’t any more serene than the early 21st, which is why Leo XIII said that the “…everlasting bliss in Heaven” prayer should be added to the rosary during October of 1889. Doing the same this year wouldn’t hurt, and that’s another topic.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Living Forever<\/h4>\n

<\/a>The 2018 death of my father-in-law, sister-in-law’s 2019 death and recent deaths of two folks I know hasn’t left me feeling like the narrator in Poe’s “The Raven.”<\/p>\n

But their deaths, filling out a Health Care Directive and COVID-19 have encouraged an awareness of death, judgment, Hell and Heaven: what Catholics call “last things.”<\/p>\n

Which brings me back to “happy death.”<\/p>\n

Oxymoronic musings aside, “happy death” sounds bonkers.<\/p>\n

Death isn’t, by any reasonable standard, fun. Even without physical pain, death brings loss: separation from friends and family, an end to whatever we found pleasant in life.<\/p>\n

And we’re praying for a “happy death?!”<\/p>\n

<\/a>What, we’re supposed to gambol to our graves, giggling all the way?<\/p>\n

No. Not from what I’ve read and heard.<\/p>\n

Backing up a little, death happens. (Catechism, 1007)<\/p>\n

And it’s not permanent.<\/p>\n

Living forever is good news or bad news, depending on what happens in my particular judgment. That’s a sort of a postmortem performance review. What I’ve done matters. So does whether I accept God’s love and mercy. Or not. (Catechism, 1021-1029, 1033-1037, 1042-1050)<\/p>\n

Saying “thanks but no thanks” to what Pope Leo XIII called “everlasting bliss” strikes me as a bad idea. But it is an option. And not what a happy death leads to.<\/p>\n

I gather that experiencing a happy death would \u2014 and, I hope, will \u2014 mean being on good terms with our Lord when I die, and being ready to say “yes” to God’s mercy.<\/p>\n

<\/a>On the Road to Emmaus: “Some Women” Were Right<\/h4>\n

<\/a>This Sunday’s gospel reading starts with Luke 24:13<\/a>. That’s where Jesus meets Cleopas and someone else on their way to Emmaus.<\/p>\n

There’s been considerable speculation about why the two disciples didn’t recognize Jesus.<\/p>\n

I strongly suspect it’s at least partly because they knew that our Lord had died.<\/p>\n

And assumed, not unreasonably, that someone who’s dead stays that way.<\/p>\n

The two chaps on their way to Emmaus and the other surviving disciples were on a steep learning curve \u2014 on their way to realizing that Jesus of Nazareth didn’t stay dead.<\/p>\n

And that “some women” were right.<\/p>\n

“Some women from our group, however, have astounded us: they were at the tomb early in the morning
\n“and did not find his body; they came back and reported that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who announced that he was alive.
\n(Luke 24:22<\/a>–23<\/a>)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>The Best News Ever<\/h4>\n

<\/a>It took more than a month of meetings and working lunches, but eventually even Thomas realized that Jesus was no longer dead.<\/p>\n

Then our Lord gave us standing orders, and left: with a promise that he’d be back.<\/p>\n

That was two millennia back now.<\/p>\n

If Jesus had been anyone else, we’d have stopped expecting his return long ago.<\/p>\n

But Jesus isn’t anyone else, so we’re passing along the best news humanity’s ever had.<\/p>\n

Our Lord died. And then Jesus stopped being dead. He was and is really, physically, alive. (John 1:14<\/a>, 3:17<\/a>; Acts 2:24<\/a>; Catechism, 232-260, 456\u2013478, 631-655)<\/p>\n

God loves us. All of us. Each of us. And wants to adopt us. (Romans 8:15<\/a>; Ephesians 1:3<\/a>–5<\/a>; Peter 2:3<\/a>–4<\/a>; Catechism, 1-3, 27-30, 52, 1825, 1996)<\/p>\n

I’ve taken God up on the offer.<\/p>\n

Even though there’s a catch. Sort of.<\/p>\n

Like any other family, God’s has family values. I figure acting as if I accept those values makes sense. (James 2:17<\/a>–19<\/a>; Catechism, Catechism, 1814-1816)<\/p>\n

They’re quite simple.<\/p>\n

I should love God and my neighbors. Everyone is my neighbor. No exceptions. (Matthew 5:43<\/a>–44<\/a>, 22:36<\/a>–40<\/a>; Mark 12:28<\/a>–31<\/a>; Luke 6:31<\/a> 10:25<\/a>–27<\/a>, 29<\/a>–37<\/a>; Catechism, 1789)<\/p>\n

That’s simple, and incredibly difficult. But I think it makes sense.<\/p>\n

I’ve talked about life, death and choices before:<\/p>\n