L.J. Milone shares a reflection on the reading from the Gospel according to John that we hear this weekend.
Whether we have a near-death experience or a nearing-death experience or neither, we can let go into God right now.
Two sets of experiences available for our reflection coincide with the basic message of today’s Gospel reading about Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead: the near-death experience and the nearing death experience. The first is when a person is physically dead (or clinically dead) yet returns to life. The second is the experience of someone who is actively dying and coming to terms with that fate. Near death experiences catapult people into the Transcendent Mystery of God, then they return to life and report being changed. Nearing death experiences change people as they die. But, both affirm that our real identity is eternal, that death does not have the final word on who we are. Instead, God in and through Jesus has the final word on our true identity.
In the Gospel today, everyone except Jesus believes death is all-powerful. They do not yet believe Jesus is the source of eternal life, for in his own person he reconciles God and humanity. In him we are one with God, and, hence, beyond the reach of death. Jesus assures the disciples, Martha, and Mary, first, that death has no power anymore, and second, that they will “see the glory of God” in what Jesus does. Like the disciples, we believe, and fear, the false self is the consciousness that dies. In fact, secular culture seems to presume the ego consciousness is our only consciousness and that when the brain shuts down for good, consciousness goes with it.
In his book, Evidence for the Afterlife, Dr. Jeffrey Long, a radiation oncologist from Louisiana, presents the stories of people who have had a near death experience. He writes, for instance, of a patient who “had a brain hemorrhage that dropped him to the ground. He said he could see “360 degrees” around his body. Before long, he had a profound sense of being dead, which wasn’t a bad thing, by his account: When I realized I was dead, which took several minutes, a great warmth of love engulfed me, and I felt arms wrap around me even though I had no physical form; colors were electric, smells fantastic…. I was also aware of the overpowering secret to life in its truly simple form and felt and believed that nothing else is real but the feeling. The experience of death has been the most real and physical experience of my life, and the world here felt cold and heavy and unreal for sometime afterward.” The near-death experience affirms the reality of consciousness after the physical dying process. Our awareness transcends death, but it is not the consciousness we think. It’s not the false self, but the consciousness we have been describing as the true self.
The nearing death experience is similar in its life-changing effects and contact with the Real, but different in terms of being prior to physical death and occurring over some duration. Kathleen Dowling Singh, a hospice worker and expert on the experience of dying, coined the term “nearing death experience” based on her observations and encounters with people going through the dying process. In her book, The Grace in Dying, she writes, “dying, remarkably, is a process of natural enlightenment, of finally coming home to our true self.” This happens for anyone who is dying. Whether or not someone has been religious or practiced a spirituality, the dying process makes people enter into a transforming relationship with the Mystery of God. Some call it “enlightenment at gunpoint.” Dying leads to life.
Of course, this is nothing new to followers of Jesus. After all, through Jesus’ death and sharing in his death, we have life. In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life; whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live.” He is the resurrection and the life because he is the human manifestation of That Which Is, the Great I AM of God. Knowing and identifying with Jesus (through our relationship with God in Jesus), we participate in eternal life now. We can know who we really are this very moment, and know, simultaneously, that we will never die. We do not have to fear our final breath. Our real identity is eternal. Death does not get the last word on who we are.
Dying is a time to move beyond the false self into the true self, but we don’t have to wait until we die physically. We can die before we die, that is, we can realize the Great I AM this very moment. As I have been writing for the past four reflections, a wonderful practice to use, especially for Lent, is the YHWH breath meditation. Breathe in “Yah,” and breathe out “Weh.” Breathe and become still, silent within. Breathe and know your eternal identity, living forever in God.