7 April 2020
Tuesday of Holy Week
In Plato’s Phaedo, Socrates makes the astounding claim that philosophy is basically the preparation for death. I believe that many parents do not realize that as they send their children to Jesuit and/or Catholic universities which require their children to take several courses in philosophy, the University intends to prepare the students for a good death. In a sense, the high tuition, around $ 50,000 per year, is for the preparation of death. One of the reasons that many Jesuit and/or Catholic universities began dropping the philosophy course requirement from their core curriculum is they realized promoting death is not a good marketing strategy. No modern family would like to send their children to educational institutions, which have as their mission to prepare the students for a good death.
Socrates prepared for death, and indeed was put to death for corrupting the youth of Athens and for challenging the contemporary gods of Athens. Socrates was not afraid to die because the immortality of the soul is an essential Greek teaching which he held to be true. So, it would be good to remember that the reason Christianity found some aspects of Greek wisdom so amenable for proclaiming the Good News of the Gospel was that its greatest figures had recognized that to die well was to have lived well, and to have lived well was to have prepared for a good death.
In the Gospel today, we hear that Jesus is troubled in spirit. This passage shows the humanity of Christ, in which he fears his impending death. Jesus knows how human beings naturally try their best to avoid suffering and death. Now as his death nears, he has human fear. Nevertheless, Jesus instructs us in the faith so that we can prepared for a good death. Moreover, according to St. Augustine, Jesus was troubled because he saw that Judas was about to leave so as to betray him. Jesus was troubled because he knew that Judas would be separated from the communion of saints and drew death upon himself.
In the preparation for a good death, Jesus teaches us that, “he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6: 54). Judas takes the morsel of bread, and then Satan entered him. St. Thomas Aquinas has an interesting observation that this passage does not signify that Judas was influenced by Satan. But rather Judas himself was evil and used a good thing in an evil way. Aquinas provided an analogy of someone who receives the Eucharist, which is supposed to be the best of things, but he receives it an evil way and it turns out to be evil for him. St. Thomas pointed out further that after Judas ate the bread from Jesus, he left immediately. This is exactly happens when someone who is unworthy eats the Eucharist or drinks the precious blood; he eats and drinks to his own damage and adds to his sin. So, the bread that Judas received become a source of harm because after the bread entered his body, Satan also entered his heart.
Do you find any resonance of the Gospel today to our present experience of the pandemic? Jesus said, “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you (John 6:53). How can that possibly be, do you think, especially in the time when most Catholics are deprived from the Eucharist during the outbreak? What are some particular actions that you can do today so as to prepare well for death, which each of us will eventually face? This invitation might be too scary, but you can listen again to the Gospel story and put yourselves in the scene. What would you like to say to Jesus who is troubled before his death? Or perhaps you could say something to Jesus about the effects the current pandemic has on your own life.