“Seeing death provokes us to find the meaning of life”

The church chooses to show the body of the dead pope. Tens of thousands of pilgrims attended this exhibition. Seeing a body, what is it?

See a dead body, see someone with whom everything stopped, hits and inevitably refers to their own death. All of a sudden this body that has lived is motionless, stopped, cold, frozen. Dead announcements, we permanently receive it, they abound in the media. Knowing that someone is dead is one thing, but seeing it is another because using our senses allows us to become aware of this reality. In the Church it is, moreover, the meaning of the sacraments: the divine mystery goes through matter and in particular the body. In addition, that said something of the relevance of faith in the incarnation and in the resurrection: we are embodied beings and called to remain so eternally.

In the rest of society, do we hide death too much?

Yes. And wrongly. Looking at death in the face pushes meaning in his life: if everything should end like that, what is the value of this terrestrial existence time? What do I do? And above all: What does life demand from me? Life is given to us, then removed at one point. In this sense, she is not ours. She is a gift received, not a property.

A certain desire to be master is emerging in our time, in ways of ways, moreover paradoxical: some would like to use technology to make death disappear, when others would like to be able to provoke it. In any case, we don’t want her to surprise us. Moreover showing reality would constitute a remedy. For fear of shocking them, we often avoid talking to children about it. Now it is death that provokes us to find the beauty of life.

To show it in all that she has ugly, repulsive, do we not risk on the contrary to stir up the desire to remove it?

It never happened. Humanity has always rubbed shoulders with death – and until recently much more than us – and has always sought to know what this reality covered. Men have developed philosophies, found meaning. They did not despair. Paradoxically, our world is more desperate even when it sees death less. In fact, nothing invites us to look for what is behind.

Before dying, the Pope, head of state, was publicly decreased, weakened, marked by the disease. What to read in this attitude?

This fully corresponds to the Gospel, the message of which goes unlike the values ​​of the world. Where a head of state wants to be strong, valiant, that of the Church presents itself weak, poor, small, faithful to those that Christ has chosen. It is also a way of testifying to the wisdom of the Church.

Benoît XVI had made the choice of renunciation, feeling that he could no longer assume this charge. This gesture can be interpreted in the same direction as that of François: show that the Pope is delivered at his charge, until he had the marked body.

But is it not risky that a chef makes this choice to present his weakness?

The Church announces a crucified god. It is a “madness for the pagans”. She does not do communication, she does in the truth. It puts off some and touches others. By showing the suffering or dead body of the pope, it acts the same: it shows what is.