Today is my hour, tomorrow is yours!

At the gate of an old cemetery, a weathered sign bore a chilling message: “Today is my hour; tomorrow is yours.” It was as if the dead themselves were speaking, reminding us that we, too, shall die. The message awakens a fear that we often pretend does not exist.

- FR. ROLANDO Y. DELA ROSA, O.P.

Why are we afraid of death? Why do we cling to life so fiercely even when we are afflicted with a lingering illness, dementia, or a painful sense of aloneness and uselessness?

For many people, death is terrifying because of its finality. We crave second chances. For others, it means the ultimate judgment: heaven or hell. Those who do not believe in an afterlife fear death because of the anguish of being separated from loved ones or their hoarded wealth. One psychologist say people are afraid of death because they do not want to be forgotten.

In a world where violence and murder have become rampant, we have learned to mask our fear of death behind elaborate defenses: funeral parlors that beautify the dead; memorial parks that suggest our loved ones are not forever gone, but merely out of sight; the beauty and youth cults that despise signs of our mortality, like aging; and films that trivialize death through spectacles of violence and gore.