Life, Death and Beyond

Q&A With Fr. Sebastian Athappilly

Q: For all sentient creatures, death is inevitable. But many people just don’t want to talk or even think about death. How do you think their reluctance to even think of death might shape their worldview, how they look at the purpose of life?

A: It can be true either way: the reluctance to face the reality of death shapes their worldview, or conversely, their worldview makes them cynical about life and the understanding of death. For one who is materialistic and allows no room for any higher reality besides and beyond the visible world of the senses, death is the final blow to any meaning of and in life. In this sense, death is the most agitating and irritating threat, from which nobody can escape. All what a human being does is, the materialist believes, doomed to vanish with death. In a materialistic worldview, there is no solid ground for any joy and hope if one is constantly aware of this absolutely certain fate that sooner or later completely destroys whatever we accomplish in this world. Hence, for adherents of this worldview, it is better not to think of death!

These people are forced to avoid facing the thought of their death precisely because the thought appears so terrifying to them. For these people, there is no purpose in life other than ‘enjoying’ life as much as possible until death draws the curtain at an unpredictable time, or even, for some, to commit suicide when they think there is no hope of any betterment of their situation. Despair is often the logical and psychological outcome of purely immanent or materialistic worldviews in the face of death.

Q: Related to this, would you say that the purpose of human life can only be understood by bringing in the reality of death and the concept of the Hereafter (which is something that all religions talk of, sometimes in different ways), and that only then can we understand the larger picture of what is life is for and about? What difference do you think faith in the Hereafter—life after death—might make in the way we think of the purpose of life?

A: We can understand anything only from a larger picture of its setting and context. Similarly, the meaning and purpose of life can only be understood from a larger perspective. By limiting the view of life within the confines of this material world alone, the purely secular and immanent or materialistic worldviews arbitrarily shut all doors and windows to transcendence and thereby also close room for a better scope for understanding the purpose of life.

Faith in the Hereafter, on the other hand, provides a clearer vision of the ultimate purpose of life. It also promotes a noble view of every human person, to the extent that each human being is seen as called to a higher vocation, to attain God, and not merely as a mass of flesh to be decomposed and dissolved upon death.

Belief in a life after death can also motivate one to do good things in life and to avoid evil deeds precisely in view of the sanction to be expected from a Judge—God—who sees everything. Without this sanction, justice and morality lose all value.

Q: If someone says, “All this talk about life after death—Heaven and Hell or rebirth or whatever—is just wishful thinking. There is no conclusive proof that anything like this exists. People who don’t want to accept the fact that death puts an end to our existence have simply invented these theories. Their scriptures may say this or that about resurrection, life after death etc., but they just cannot prove their claims”, how would you respond?

A: It is true that there is no conclusive proof of Heaven and Hell and rebirth or whatever regarding the state after death. It is possible to think that all the talk about life after death is invented by people who do not want to accept that death supposedly puts an end to our existence. But the same can be equally remarked about those who deny life after death—that those who are afraid of a sanction after death do not want to accept a life after death! In other words, they nourish the wishful thinking that there won’t be life after death.

If no one has proved that there is life after death, it is also true that nobody has conclusively proved that there is no life after death. But one thing is to be seriously considered: If there is life at all before death, independent of what anyone thinks, there is also the real possibility of life after death. Nothing speaks against it.

Further, the existence of an entity does not depend on whether you are able to prove its existence the way your opponent wants it to be proved. Nobody has established all the norms of the proof of the existence of an entity. Human beings and human reason are not the masters to set such norms. It is also arrogance to claim that only those entities that pass my test are allowed to be real entities, and others that fail to match my norms are simply non-existent!

The honest way would be to be open for anything, even something beyond my horizon. Confining reality within your limited horizon is actually pride and pre-judgement and a one-sided conclusion without sound basis.

Q: Many people might say that we should not bother about God and the Hereafter and that we should focus only on what we can know for ‘sure’—i.e. dimensions related to the physical or tangible world. They might argue that God and the Hereafter are unknown, unknowable and speculative and so we should focus only on this world and seek to gain ‘fulfilment’ here. That alone, they may claim, is the way to fulfil the purpose of life or to lead a truly meaningful life.

How would you see this view?

A: God and the Hereafter are certainly unknown in the sense in which we know the things of this material, physical world. At the same time, however, they are not totally unknown! The sublime beauty and splendour of this universe, the craving of the heart for something beyond what this world can offer, the inexpressible sense of gratitude and joy at certain moments of life, the feelings of awe, wonder and mystery, the sense of vacuum or void even after one has achieved everything in this life and the reality of death as the final blow to everything material—all of these give us an inkling about the Hereafter and the incomprehensible majesty of God. To think of human life as having sense and meaning only till the grave agitates against the greatness and nobility of the human spirit. Those who think so low of human destiny and purpose of life are to be pitied.

Faith in God provides us with dignity also in old age, when we are not able to contribute as we were until then through our physical efforts and efficiency. Faith in God tells me that I as a person am honourable, not based on what I can do and what position I occupy, but merely because of what I am—namely, a creature of God, a child of God, loved and willed by Him. Faith strengthens and consoles me that there is a life that is awaiting me after and beyond my death, that what good I have done in my life in terms of selfless love for others and deep love for God will have its positive effects on my Hereafter. Faith in God assures me that injustice suffered on earth will be compensated and that victims will be vindicated. Faith encourages me to face death in the hope of meeting my Creator, the merciful Heavenly Father, in love, gratitude and eternal adoration.

(The author is a Catholic priest from Kerala belonging to the CMI (Carmelites of Mary Immaculate) religious congregation. He has been teaching Systematic Theology from 1985 at Dharmaram Vidya Kshetram, a leading centre for higher Catholic learning, in Bangalore. He served there as the President, Dean (Faculty of Theology) and Registrar. Since 2009 he has been teaching there as visiting professor and also been serving as hospital chaplain at the State Hospital and University Clinic, Graz, Austria)