How to Die

Thomas Merton

Our great dignity is tested by death -- I mean our freedom. When the "parting of the ways" comes -- to set one's foot gladly on the way that leads out of this world. This is a great gift of ourselves, not to death but to life. For he who knows how to die not only lives longer in this life (as if it matters) but lives eternally because of his freedom.

So he who faces death can be happy in this life and in the next, and he who does not face it has no happiness in either. This is a central and fundamental reality of life, whether one is or is not a "believer" -- for this "facing" of death implies already a faith and an uprightness of heart and the presence of Christ, whether one thinks of it or not. 

A Year With Thomas Merton, November 9