The sexton tolls the bell! People, asked each other, “For whom the bell tolls?” One of them said, “A soul has breathed his last breath on this Earth.
Everything living is bound to die one day. Death is a balancing act of Nature — whether plants, animals or humans have to yield to give place to newer things. The trees throw out unceremoniously, its yellow leaves yielding place to the new, to produce food to the trees. Even fresh waters of a river push out to the seas. No one knows, when for the last time one will see someone, face to face; as death surrounds us to take us in its arms at any time. Yet we are hardly bothered about it and we continue to live as though we are here forever. We live on this land as owners; although, we are only its caretakers; as the land is gifted to us by God.
After death nothing changes on this earth; the continuous laws of the universe run as it always does. The Sun rises and sets as it always has. Friends and strangers move on in their own path. People come and go offering their condolences and in spite of their best efforts their words seem too weak, too inadequate to soothe the pain of loss of the loved one.
But, for the near and dear ones, everything looks, a bit different, a bit distorted. Memories can never be forgotten or erased from the minds of the dear ones. Memory pictures of the dead, live in those spaces of their absence in our mind’s eye; we hear their voice, their footsteps, their expressions, their smile, their flash of anger; their look of happiness, their warmth of love.
God heals the bleeding wounds and gives grace to face the unexpected situation. The living relatives begin again; they learn how to take courageous baby steps; how to walk and talk; how to dream different dreams; how to create life anew.
In cool reflection, it looks that our life in this world is like a “movie show; before it begins, the screen is blank. Then suddenly it comes alive and unfolds an interesting story with many characters; their winding journey, with joys and sorrows, generosity and miserliness, success and failures; their greed and guilt and so on. Then when the movie ends, all those characters disappear completely.” Similarly, our soul leaves this earth completely; the soul does not die because it is God’s breath of life into man’s nostrils (Gen. 2:7). After death, it goes straight to breathe its first breath in the heavenly court, where God does not depend on evidence, like earthly courts, to know the truth, to give the verdict of the soul’s eternal place in heaven or hell.
Now, just as the water in the clouds is pure and when it falls on the ground as rain, it mixes with mud and gathers impurities. Likewise, the soul that was originally pure, gets tarnished with desires and attachments, become impure because of its association with the mind.
Therefore, before we take our first breath in the heavenly court, we have to reflect on our past and repent for our misdeeds and misgivings or else we will be condemned to everlasting torment in a place called hell. We cannot beg pardon with ‘repentant tears’ after death. We know this from the parable about the rich man and Lazarus “…between us and you a great chasm has been fixed…” (Lk.16:26).
