DOES OUR FAITH ENABLE US TO FACE DEATH CHEERFULLY?

Death is a tragedy for mortal man, and yet with faith in eternity and anticipation of the embrace of our heavenly Father, death becomes radiant.

I share a story about the news of the death of Sister Cecilia, a Carmelite of Santa Fe in Argentina, who suffered from lung cancer. She astonished those who surrounded her in her agony by the beautiful smile on her face as she was approaching her final moments. 

Following was the profound announcement of her death:  

Dear brothers, sisters and friends,

Jesus! Just a few lines to let you know that our very dear little sister has softly fallen asleep in the Lord, after an extremely painful illness, which she always endured with joy and surrender to her Divine Spouse.

We send you all of our affection, thankful for your support and prayer during this time that is so sorrowful and yet also so marvelous. We believe that she flew directly to heaven, but all the same, we ask that you do not fail to pray for her. From heaven, she will reward you.

A warm embrace from your sisters of Santa Fe.

Photos circulating on the internet of a dying Carmelite sister are certainly, as they say, worth a thousand words (The publishers have clarified later that it was not taken at the moment of death; but on her sick bed). The image that has traveled around the world is only part of the story. For those who lived her suffering beside her, the nun’s testimony of joy and peace were just as radiant as her face.

Despite her illness, she did not lose her joy, which was sustained by the support of her numerous family members, who remained close by. Joyful nieces and nephews congregated in the gardens outside the hospital where she was admitted for some weeks, sending her messages and helium balloons to distract and entertain her from the window.

Her joy was accompanied — or perhaps explained — by a profound state of prayer. Whenever she could, she put on her habit so as to participate at Mass in the hospital chapel. She lived these Masses with the same devotion that characterized her behind the grille of the Carmel of Villa Pueyrredon in Buenos Aires.

Despite her illness, Sister Cecilia remained quite lucid. Though she couldn’t talk during her last months, her weak gestures at each Mass gave evidence of her attention and fervor. When the prayers of the faithful included the intention of the sick, her expression showed her gratitude.

Those who saw her spoke of her face as showing peace and joy — as someone awaiting the encounter with the One to whom she had given her life, Our Lord Jesus Christ.

“I am very content,” Sister Cecilia Maria wrote in May, “astonished by the Work of God through suffering, and by so many people who pray for me.”

Some hours before dying, the Carmelite was able to receive Communion, wetting her lips with the Precious Blood of Our Lord. The illness had already, sometime before, taken the use of her tongue, “the most sacred paten for receiving his Body and Blood,” as she described it.

She “has softly fallen asleep in the Lord, after an extremely painful illness, which she always endured with joy and surrender to her Divine Spouse,” her sisters in the Carmel of Santa Fe said in announcing her death.

[I post her photo for the benefit of those who have not come across the story in the internet. It is more powerful than ‘n’ number of words.]