Fear of death vs

the longing of
something more
•The Fear of death
•The longing for
something more
1.Those who are ruled by fear of death
cannot hear the deepest longings of
their hearts.
They are too busy to numb themselves
from the reality of death.
•Those who embrace their
longing for God, however,
would find that death is not
something that we need to be
afraid of. The fear of death loses
its sting.
•Roger Troisfontaines describes a
person who replaces the fear of
death with the longing for God
in the moment in his deathbed
(Troisfontaines, 2001: 264).
The person oriented towards charity,
who all his life has sought a more
profound union with God and with
others, will open with full
spontaneity the moment this
communion is proposed to him
The longing for God does not mean,
however, that we will no longer need
others in our lives. On the contrary, when
we embrace this longing for God, we are
able to love other people more fully and
unconditionally.
It is as if we our hearts have been
rendered open to welcome this
overflowing love from God, which in
turn overflows into our love for
persons.
A large part of the act of
philosophizing is “conditioned by
hope” (Pieper, 2009).
• Hope is what conditions our questioning, our
reflecting.
• Hope is what gives us courage to direct our lives
more deliberately, more meaningfully. “Hope
anchors the soul” (Hebrews 6:19)
• Without hope, the fact of death renders
everything else in our lives as abusrd
Life can be meaningful
because of our capacity
to hope