Death and Afterlife 7 - Why do we fear death?

Why is it even though we are sincere believers that we still fear death? Most likely it is because our faith is not as strong as we may think it is. We all have doubts like the Apostle Thomas. We may be enjoying a good life that is only loosely connected to the Gospel teachings and we can’t imagine anything better. Bottom line, death is not a present reality for us. Commonly, we tend to give little though to the need for us to prepare properly for our death and the life to come. Our soul is wounded and is in love with all the pleasures of this life. We think this is it, better enjoy it. Because of this we do not want to consider that we may some day lose all we currently enjoy.

Saint Isaac the Syrian says: 

As long as man is careless and indolent in his life, he will fear the hour of death. As long as he depends on worldly knowledge and lives a carnal life, he will be terrified by death.

We do not think of the reality of a judgement to come and the possibility that we may have a life eternal in torment, separated from God having no recourse to our condition.

Saint John Chrysostom writes:

We are not afraid of the eternal punishment in Gehenna and for this reason, instead of being afraid of sin, we are afraid of death. We do not know how unbearable that hell is.

We are act as if we are unaware that none of our worldly passions that currently give us joy can be satisfied in the life beyond death. In fact, we may even phantasize a life after death that is like the one we have now. Being naturally lazy, we do not keep in mind all the things Jesus taught us. We fail to struggle with our shortcomings, all the ways we fall short of following His commandments. We lack the courage to face death.

With our priorities set on gaining earthly things and relationships, we are unaware that we don’t really love God with our whole heart and that we don’t have any desire for a life in Heaven.

Saint Paul says:

Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.

We seem to be only able to think of the external, the surfaces of things, and don’t take time to ponder their deeper reality. 

So how can we over come this fear?