Overcoming Death

 From the Gospel of This Day, Wednesday of the 9th Week in Ordinary Time (Mark 12:18–27).

One of the hardest realities we like to avoid is death. Some of us do so by wishing it away or by never wanting to think about it. This is because we truly want to live and to live well.

When we look closely, we will discover that the things we do, or avoid doing, are normally motivated by this desire not to die and to live well. I am here to tell you that there is a way to overcome this thing called death and to continue to live. We continue to live when we remember that we are seeds and therefore consciously choose the best way for a seed to continue to live. How?

A seed must be sown into the soil, die, and germinate in order to continue its cycle of life. Otherwise, it will still die, but it will be wasted. For us humans, anything (gifts, talents, time, wisdom, wealth) that we retain for ourselves and do not sow will perish with us when we are done living here on earth.

Therefore, the path by which we participate in God's victory over death is through genuine love. It is love that urges us to go out of ourselves and to plant ourselves. Apart from cases of rape and other abuses, we who are alive today are fruits of this outward movement of two people who moved beyond themselves and planted themselves. Human life begins through this union of two people.

But then, we know that we are not mere animals. We are who we are today because of the things we received from others—because other people invested in us. Just imagine if a child is born and abandoned; it dies immediately.

Now you can understand the importance of consciously investing in others. We often pay so much attention to caring for our material investments, but if we do not have clear plans for how all of them will eventually be invested in others, we will still die retaining those seeds, which means wasting them.

The parable of the rich fool in Luke (see Lk. 12:13–21) clearly shows the stupidity of wasting our lives by thinking only about ourselves and therefore accumulating things. The man—whom the Lord called a fool, because he was—was reasoning within himself:

"What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?

 ...I will do this: I will pull down my barns and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

...I will say to my soul, 'Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.'" (See Lk. 12:17–19)

Can you observe the number of times the first-person pronoun "I" appears? He forgot that he was not responsible for the harvest. The parable began by saying: "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully" (Lk. 12:16).

Hence, is it not a foolish thought for any human being—who is also the fruit of the investment of others—to think that the best way to outlive death is to conserve and preserve?

Even if the majority of what you have achieved or possess is the fruit of your own hard work, it will all be wasted if death catches you before you have planted it. And our lives here are very brief. Many centuries ago, the Psalmist understood this and prayed to God, saying: "Teach us to number our days that we may gain a heart of wisdom" (Ps. 90:12).

So, as you build anything, know that the only things that remain are those that are planted—not merely the things we plant into the lives of those we ourselves choose, which is still a form of selfishness, but into the lives of those whom the Lord rightly places in our path.

Now you can understand the frustration of those who, neglecting others, invested only in those they chose, such as their biological children and spouses, only to experience betrayal. And the real agony is that most of these people whom we think we are investing in are only waiting for us to die so that they can inherit the things we laboured so hard for.

As I am typing this, there are some children of wealthy people who are simply waiting for their parents to die so that they can squander the fruits of their parents' hard work.

The answer, therefore, is not merely to avoid death but to overcome it. Today's Gospel reminds us that our God is "not God of the dead, but of the living" (Mk. 12:27). We overcome death when we live in communion with Him and when, like seeds, we allow ourselves to be planted in love. Everything we hoard for ourselves dies with us; everything we sow in love continues to live and bear fruit. That is why genuine love is not simply a virtue among others; it is the way by which human beings participate in God's own life, a life over which death has no power.

Ifeanyichukwu

Wednesday, 3 June 2026