The Path to Easter: A Reflection on Death and Salvation

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. "The groans of death" (gemitus mortis) are all around me; I am surrounded. Surrounded. What is it that surrounds me? I spoke of the "groans," but what exactly is surrounding me? All these mortis—let’s say, the lamentation of death. This is our reality. Death surrounds us, and because of it, we are in pain. Mortis. Each of us is surrounded by this fear of death.

Regardless of our age—from the infant to the elderly—this death surrounds us, and we live in fear, asking: "When will it happen? When?" Sometimes, those we expect to be taken by death remain with us, while for others—those we don't expect at all—we suddenly learn they are gone. These "groans of death" (gemitus mortis), this fear... we know it will strike us, but we do not know when. We live in anxiety. Will it be today? Tomorrow? At this place or that? How will it happen?
Why the Church Reminds Us

Why does Holy Church remind us of this? Because of Easter. That is the reason for Easter. Why is there an Easter? You’ve had Christmas—why is there a Christmas? We know that the Child came to save us. Save us from what?

The liturgy continues by speaking of the dolores inferni—the "pains of hell." That is it. After death, once we have died, what happens? There is another fear lurking: once we are dead, we will be judged. Regardless of our age, we will be judged. Jesus will come to judge us. Where will we go then? What will the judgment be?

We fear losing the life of the body, but once that life is gone, we ask: "What about the judgment? Where will He send me? Will I avoid Purgatory? Will I avoid Hell?" You see why Holy Church reminds us of all this. This is the reason for Easter; this is the reason for Christmas. We sing it at every Mass, every Sunday: propter nos et propter nostram salutem—for us and for our salvation.

He became incarnate. Why? He is God; what is He doing here with us? With poor sinners like us, with mortals? He comes for you. For our sake. To save us. To save us from what? From the gemitus mortis and the dolores inferni. He comes to snatch us away from the death of the body, but also from the worst of deaths: the death of the soul. That is what Hell is. That is why He comes. Everything is logical. To do all this, He must first be born—that is Christmas. He must grow up until He dies for us, to save us from that death.
The Victory over Death

So, He will die to save us from death. He, too, will experience those "groans of death." All of this is the preparation for Easter. We know His enemies will want to kill Him. We know Holy Week—the Agony. The "Agony" is the final struggle between life and death. Then He is imprisoned, and on Friday, they kill Him. He knew those groans.

But He did not know the "pains of hell" (dolores inferni), because He could not go to Hell, of course. And it is through this that He will remove those groans of death and those pains of hell. This is why, later on, St. Paul says that if we only believe in Christ for this life, it is useless. It serves no purpose. This is also why we sing in the Creed of the Resurrection we await: The Resurrection of the Dead. That is where the gemitus mortis will be completely destroyed. There will no longer be a fear of dying, and He will also destroy the dolores inferni. Hell will be set aside forever.
Easter: The Ultimate Goal

Do you see why Easter is much more important than Christmas? Christmas is the preparation for Easter. He must first be born; He is born for Calvary, for Easter. You might say to me, "But we are still dying." No—Easter has already taken place; it is just that we are in a hurry. The victory was already won at Easter.

What is happening now is that the victory is being applied to us gradually. I was speaking with one of you about the saints whose bodies are still here (incorrupt). A saint may have been dead for 1,000 years, but their body is still there. You look at the body as if they were sleeping. The person died 1,000 years ago; the body is in the earth, but the dolores inferni are not there—they are in Heaven. For them, the victory over those pains is finished. It is true there were "groans of death," but Jesus shows us a glimpse of the victory through these bodies that remain intact after 200, 500, or 1,000 years.

Think of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus or the Curé of Ars—you can go see their bodies. These are more recent saints, but there are others from 1,000 years ago whose bodies are still there. Look also at the martyrs, who were ready to die to show that the gemitus mortis does not overcome us. We are ready to die for God.
The Spiritual Race

This is why those who give their lives to God in the priesthood or religious life show that the "groans of death" are not what is most important. They give their whole lives to God because they know that afterward, they will gain something else.


All of this liturgy—Christmas preparing for Easter—is so great that we must prepare for it step by step. First, this current season (Septuagesima), then Lent. Even Lent is divided: there is the Time of Passion, and then Holy Week. Easter is so profound that we take a long time to meditate on it, and even more time to draw the fruits from it during the season after Pentecost.

Finally, St. Paul speaks to us of the runners in the stadium. It is like a race; we are running to reach Easter. Will everyone reach it? When we talk about "reaching Easter," we don't mean just showing up physically to have a party ("la bamboula") or go on spring break. Easter is not a party; it is spiritual. To reach Easter "spiritually ready" is what matters.

St. Paul tells us that those who run or wrestle deprive themselves of everything. That is what Lent is. We are going to deprive ourselves. It hasn't started yet, but once Lent begins, we must give up a certain number of things. Like high-level athletes, we make sacrifices. They don't go to nightclubs all the time because they have an objective. We want to reach Easter, so we will deprive ourselves of many things—not for a perishable crown, but for an imperishable one.

St. Paul says that even he, an Apostle, applies this to himself because he too fears being condemned. He says, "I do not run without a goal... I punish my body and make it my slave." He deprives himself so that after preaching to others, he himself is not disqualified. That is the issue. We cannot preach that people must pray and prepare for Easter while we ourselves are out partying. It wouldn't make sense.

He mentions something very important: all those who crossed the Red Sea ate the manna with Moses. But St. Paul says that in the end, very few of them were pleasing to God. We can "reach" Easter, but have we been pleasing to God? Are we truly prepared?

Of the roughly two million people who left Egypt and ate manna for 40 years, almost no one saw the Promised Land. Even Moses himself did not enter; he saw it, but did not enter. Very few entered. So, let us not say to ourselves, "Yes, I am Catholic, I am a priest, the door is wide open." No...




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