The death of the pope is a good catalyst for reflecting on the meaning of Christian death in general. I commend to your attention the
"Catechism of the Catholic Church" (which JP2 was instrumental in producing). I commend it to you in general, and as a reference on the meaning of Christian death in particular:
Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning: "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." "The saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him." What is essentially new about Christian death is this: through Baptism, the Christian has already "died with Christ" sacramentally, in order to live a new life; and if we die in Christ's grace, physical death completes this "dying with Christ" and so completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act:
"It is better for me to die in Christ Jesus than to reign over the ends of the earth. Him it is I seek -- who died for us. Him it is I desire -- who rose for us. I am on the point of giving birth.... Let me receive pure light; when I shall have arrived there, then shall I be a man." [from St. Ignatius of Antioch]
In death, God calls man to himself. Therefore the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul's: "My desire is to depart and be with Christ." He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father, after the example of Christ:
"My earthly desire has been crucified;... there is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me: come to the Father." [from St. Ignatius of Antioch]
"I want to see God and, in order to see him, I must die." [St. Teresa of Avila]
"I am not dying; I am entering life." [St. Therese of Lisieux]
-From CCC 1010-1011
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Good thoughts, Will. I would only want to add that the Christian is obliged not to seek death prematurely but to follow God's plan, to live and die in God's time. One might aspire towards rising with Christ, but one should not allow that aspiration to become a desire to do one's self harm, or to allow harm to one's person unnecessarilly. I guess all that basically goes without saying, but I figured I'd say it anyway.
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