Day 137: Dying in Christ Jesus

To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ: we must "be away from the body and at home with the Lord." In that "departure" which is death the soul is separated from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of the resurrection of the dead. CCC 1006

In today's reading, the Catechism speaks of what the Church teaches about dying in Christ Jesus and what it means for believers. A basic truth in this life is that we are mortal and all of us will die someday, most of us probably not even to be remembered by future generations. However, our eventual deaths are "contrary to the plans of God the Creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin" (CCC 1008). Had the Fall not occurred, we wouldn't have experienced the "sting of death" (1 Cor 15:56). Yet it did occur through sin, and thus death became our "last enemy to be destroyed" (1 Cor 15:26). As a result, we have an "urgency to our lives" which, as St. Ignatius of Antioch is quoted in the Catechism as saying, to: 

Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, . . . before the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. (CCC 1007)

Jesus Christ "partook of the same nature" as us yet conquered death through His Resurrection, to "deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong bondage" (Heb 2:14-15). It is in Baptism, faith, and charity that we respond to His victory over death. The Catechism Compendium summarizes what it means to die in Christ Jesus:

Dying in Christ Jesus means to die in the state of God's grace without any mortal sin. A believer in Christ, following his example, is thus able to transform his own death into an act of obedience and love for the Father. “This saying is sure: if we have died with him, we will also live with him” (2 Tim 2:11). (#206)

Finally, the Catechism Companion, Vol II notes:

Death is a necessary transition we must pass through. It's a journey we make alone, even if surrounded by loved ones...  Christian death is a call from God to be united with him, and death brings us to the One we love. Death should be seen not as an enemy but as a means to reunited with God. Longing for God and desiring to see him should accompany the recognition that death is necessary to fulfill this longing. (p. 38)