March 1, 2025 - Death and Passing Away

In the Catholic faith, death is not the end but a sacred passage into eternal life. Rooted in the hope of Christ’s resurrection, Catholics view death with reverence, trust, and peace—believing that the soul continues its journey toward union with God. Through prayer, sacraments, and the promise of resurrection, the Church offers comfort and guidance in the face of loss.

MC: Adam Hohn

Parochial Vicar: Tyler Arens

Presenter: Joseph Gruber

Deacon: Rick Freedberg

Brought to you By: The Knights of Columbus

participantOne:(0-21580): Gentlemen, we're going to get started with a prayer from Father Tyler. Oh, we are? Yeah! Have you ever heard me talk? In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Amen. Heavenly Father, we give you thanks and praise for the gift of this day, especially in these last days.

participantOne:(21920-45340): before we begin the great season of Lent, Lord, we ask you to help us to call to mind the ways that we've been turned away from you. Help us to see what is the dirt, what is the filth, the stuff that you want to help us to purge during this season of Lent.

participantOne:(46000-63000): How do you want us to look with your eyes and your vision into our own hearts and our own lives to see what we can bring before you to be made new, to be renewed, recreated in your son during this season of Lent so that we might come to you.

participantOne:(63220-87040): the end of this season of Lent and Easter, and share more fully in the joy of his resurrection. So send your spirit upon us this morning, lighten our hearts and minds to hear your word, know what it is you want to say to us and teach us this morning, especially about the last things, that we may be prepared and also be leaders for our families and our community to help show others what awaits us.

participantOne:(87400-120380): We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Thank you, Father Tyler, and welcome everyone to the first Saturday core in March. The plan is, well, we're getting close. Ash Wednesday is soon upon us. We will be every day, or every week, with core during Lent. So there's five Saturdays.

participantOne:(120640-148540): in March. So we're continuing on the first three Saturdays of every month, having the formal presentation here, prayer formation fraternity down here in star hall. The fourth Saturday is the breakfast at cascade Mariner house. That starts at seven o'clock on that Saturday. And then the fifth one, I think we're still figuring out the details specifically what we're going to do for that fifth Saturday. Um,

participantOne:(148980-181880): possibly an hour of adoration may be stationed to the cross. We're still trying to figure that part out specifically. Is anyone here for their first time? Welcome back everyone, welcome back. We've got a pretty substantial group this morning. The plan is to continue to invite men to CORE, especially we're approaching the season of Lent. We had a big

participantOne:(182400-212299): We started out big last year during Lent, so I know a lot of men find using CORE as a time to reflect upon our Lord's death is very fruitful, which kind of segues into the topic, the overarching theme for this month of March, a very exciting, exhilarating topic about death, not only about our Lord's death, but our death as well.

participantOne:(212840-244200): The Knights of Columbus have this saying, Tempus Fugit Momentum Ore, time flies, remember death. That this is something that's part of the Christian life that we are going to pass away at some point and to make sure that we've gotten everything taken care of on that end. For those who don't know me, I'm Adam Hahn. Not only do I emcee corps, but I'm also, I work for the Knights of Columbus, right?

participantOne:(244980-275180): For a lot of people, if you don't know who the Knights are, we were founded by a priest, Michael McGivney, blessed Michael McGivney. And it was a way for men to bring men back into the church to create this fraternity, what we're doing right here, to have men formed, to keep men in the home. But we were also suffering from men dying prematurely for different reasons. So...

participantOne:(275460-304320): typically working in dangerous jobs, things to that effect. So there was no benefit for the family. And back then it was actually illegal for Catholics to have some sort of benefit upon your death. So there are some free benefits for joining the Knights of Columbus. And I'm gonna just talk briefly about one of them. And each week I'll kind of bring up another one as well.

participantOne:(304520-332860): Each knight and his bride have a free accidental death benefit just by joining the Knights of Columbus. So if you and or your wife or together die in an accident, there is a benefit there. What do you mean by benefit, Adam? Well, when you die in this accident, the knights will pay your family a small sum of money

participantOne:(333120-363040): because you died in this accident. And there's all other sorts of benefits the Knights provide. We've been protecting Catholic families since 1882. I won't go into all those things, but if you would like to find out more, you can see me during the different breaks, or we can exchange numbers and we can have a deeper conversation about that. So without any further ado, I'd like to welcome our speaker this morning. You love him, Joseph Gruber. Thank you.

participantOne:(368680-390760): Good morning, gentlemen. Do I need a microphone? Do you want me to go find how to make the microphone work? Yes, I do. I actually have somebody saying yes. Can the people in the back hear me? Barely? Okay, so it's going to be worth getting the microphone.

participantOne:(391520-418560): Good morning. Can you hear me? Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Anyone mind if we pray again?

participantOne:(419660-444160): I would love to pray again. You would love to pray again. Awesome. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Direct, O Lord, our actions by thy holy inspiration, and carry them on by thy gracious assistance, that every word and work of ours may begin in thee, and by thee be happily ended. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Tempus Fugit Memento Mori.

participantOne:(445040-472960): As you just heard from Adam Hahn, this is one of the fundamental sayings that undergirds the Knights of Columbus and undergirds the Christian life. Tempus fugit, time flies. I think the longer I live, the more I feel time flying. I don't know if any of you are experiencing that. Memento mori, remember death.

participantOne:(473960-503420): The phrase is, Tempus Fugit Memento Mori, time flies, remember death. To that end, I'm going to offer a reflection based on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. So, Catechism of the Catholic Church was promulgated in 1992 by John Paul II. It is a collection of the teachings of the Catholic Church.

participantOne:(503680-533520): It's not the most exhaustive collection of teachings, but it's pretty darn exhaustive. And so there's a section particularly treating death around paragraph 1,000, which is less than halfway through the text. So I'm going to read parts of it to you and then offer some thoughts about it. That is going to be the formation part of this morning.

participantOne:(533959-565320): And then we'll pray the fifth sorrowful mystery, the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. And then we'll have some time for a small group discussion. Paragraph 1005. To rise with Christ, we must die with Christ. We must be away from the body and at home with the Lord. In that departure, which is death, the soul is separated from the body. It will be reunited with the body on the day of resurrection of the dead.

participantOne:(567219-606120): So the way the Catholic Church wants us to think of death is that if you want to be united with Christ, you will have to face your own death. If we want to ignore our death, if we want to pretend like it won't happen, we are saying we are not actually looking forward to union with our Lord who loves us so much that he both created us and redeemed us. So tempest fugit memento mori.

participantOne:(611339-638740): The next paragraph begins with a quote from Gaudium et Spes, one of the documents of the Second Vatican Council. It only quotes a sentence. I would like to quote a whole paragraph from it if you'll allow me the indulgence. Great. It is in the face of death that the riddle of human existence grows most acute.

participantOne:(639040-661440): Not only is man tormented by pain and by the advancing deterioration of his body, but even more so by a dread of perpetual extinction. This is something that we feel as we contemplate death. We feel the fact that our body will fall apart, but we also fear the possibility of perpetual extinction.

participantOne:(662620-692360): He rightly follows the intuition of his heart when he abhors and repudiates the utter ruin and total disappearance of his own person. He rebels against death because he bears in himself an eternal seed which cannot be reduced to sheer matter. All the endeavors of technology, though useful in the extreme, cannot calm his anxiety, for prolongation of biological life is unable to satisfy that desire for higher life which is inescapably lodged in his breast.

participantOne:(692980-721640): So here the authors of Gaudium et Spes are saying, look, it makes sense to not want to die because we have within us the seeds of immortality. We have in us the promise of immortality. And so it makes sense that we do everything that we can to not die. The church is very aware of our human condition. The church is very aware of the fact that we don't want to die, which is very viscerally important.

participantOne:(721880-754940): We want to survive. Survival is baked into human existence. But it's saying that the material survival is not actually ever going to satisfy the kind of life we actually long for. It goes on, "...although the mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination, the Church has been taught by divine revelation and firmly teaches that man has been created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of earthly misery."

participantOne:(756280-790280): The mystery of death utterly beggars the imagination. That means we cannot imagine death. Like in the face of death, we feel our poverty. And yet the church has been taught and teaches that man was created by God for a blissful purpose beyond the reach of earthly misery. Like this is the paradox. This is the riddle of our existence is that death is facing us

participantOne:(791459-826600): and yet we know that there's more than death. Death feels final, and we feel that, and yet we know it's not. We've been taught that it's not. Paragraph 1007, Death is the end of earthly life. Our lives are measured by time, in the course of which we change, grow old, and as with all living beings on earth, death seems like the normal end of life. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives, remembering our mortality,

participantOne:(827260-856840): helps us realize that we have only a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment. And then a line from Ecclesiastes, Remember also your creator in the days of your youth, before the dust returns to the earth as it was, and the spirit returns to God who gave it. That aspect of death lends urgency to our lives. Remembering our mortality helps us realize that we only have a limited time in which to bring our lives to fulfillment. Tempus Fugit Memento Mori means,

participantOne:(857280-892800): There is an urgency to your life. There is an urgency to my life. There is a call to fulfillment that we will not rise to unless we are utterly convinced that our lives on earth will come to an end and that we are meant for so much more. Paragraph 1008, death is a consequence of sin. The church's magisterium, the teaching authority of the church, as an authentic interpreter of the affirmations of scripture and tradition,

participantOne:(893020-921800): teaches that death entered the world on account of man's sin. Even though man's nature is mortal, God had destined him not to die. Death was therefore contrary to the plans of God the creator and entered the world as a consequence of sin. Bodily death from which man would have been immune had he not sinned is thus the last enemy of man left to be conquered. Death puts a stop to our earthly lives.

participantOne:(922240-952880): In some aspects, this is my commentary right now, this isn't from the catechism. In some aspects, the curse of death means that the evil of our lives will have a final end. Right? Like sin entered the world, our lives then come to an end. Which means that the great evils of our lives will also come to an end. It's like cauterizing a wound. God does more than that. God doesn't just give us death.

participantOne:(953180-980320): Paragraph 1009, death is transformed by Christ Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Oh, sorry. Death is transformed by Christ, period. Jesus, the Son of God, also himself suffered the death that is part of the human condition. Yet despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his Father's will.

participantOne:(981120-1018040): The obedience of Jesus has transformed the curse of death into a blessing. Yet despite his anguish as he faced death, he accepted it in an act of complete and free submission to his father's will. The saying tempest fugit memento mori is an act of surrender. It is saying to the Lord, I want to be united with Christ who could face his own death in an act of free and total submission to the will of the father. That that is the way to turn death into a blessing.

participantOne:(1018300-1060400): from curse to blessing. There is no other way to turn death from curse into blessing other than through Christ Jesus. That is the way. The Catechism goes on under the subtitle, The Meaning of Christian Death, paragraph 1010. Because of Christ, Christian death has a positive meaning. St. Paul says, For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain. And the saying is sure, if we have died with him, we will also live with him.

participantOne:(1061639-1094160): What is essentially new about Christian death is this. Through baptism, the Christian has already died with Christ sacramentally in order to live a new life. And if we die in Christ's grace, physical death completes this dying with Christ and so completes our incorporation into him and his redeeming act. Gentlemen, if you have been baptized, you have died with Christ. You get to walk this world as a free man.

participantOne:(1096020-1129560): You have died to sin and you have died with Christ. There is no reason to be bound by sin other than our own idiocy, moral idiocy. So then the Catechism quotes a section from a letter from St. Ignatius to the Romans. So St. Ignatius wrote a number of letters, mostly while he was imprisoned and being transported to Rome to be executed.

participantOne:(1130139-1162340): And so this letter is the letter that he writes to the Romans. So he wrote to all these other churches on the way. But this letter is to the church in Rome. And this church is distinctive for a lot of reasons. But for St. Ignatius in particular, these are the people who are going to watch him die. He is preparing them to watch him die the death of a martyr. And so he says, "...all the pleasures of the world and all the kingdoms of this earth shall profit me nothing."

participantOne:(1163000-1190620): It is better for me to die on behalf of Jesus Christ than to reign over all the ends of the earth. For what shall a man be profited if he gained the whole world but lose his own soul? Him I seek who died for us, him I desire who rose again for our sake. This is the game which is laid up for me. Pardon me, brethren, do not hinder me from living. Do not wish to keep me in a state of death.

participantOne:(1191080-1217360): And while I desire to belong to God, do not give me over to the world. Allow me to obtain pure light. When I have gone there, I shall indeed be a man of God. Permit me to be an imitator of the passion of my God. If anyone has him within himself, let him consider what I desire and let him have sympathy with me as knowing how I am straightened.

participantOne:(1220700-1251720): In this letter, he begs the people of Rome, don't stop this from happening. I long to be united with Christ. I know what death is, and I want to face it with him. I don't want to be self-destructive. I'm not suicidal. I am united with Christ. The sentence has already been pronounced. I am to die. And so I am prepared for that which is coming.

participantOne:(1252780-1295020): And gentlemen, all of us have received a death sentence. All of us are on a pilgrimage to whatever kind of Rome where we will be facing our end. It is incumbent upon us as men to prepare those in our lives for our own deathbed or our own potential martyrdom. What would it mean if we could tell those we loved? Because St. Ignatius, he clearly loved everyone that he wrote this letter to. I am ready.

participantOne:(1295460-1325100): to be with the Lord. When he calls, I will come. What if we were able to tell that to our wives, to our children, to our brothers and our sisters, to our parents, to our neighbors? I know what journey I am on, and I know at the end that I will be united with Christ. Paragraph 1011.

participantOne:(1326340-1353020): Therefore, the Christian can experience a desire for death like St. Paul's, where he says, My desire is to depart and be with Christ. He can transform his own death into an act of obedience and love towards the Father after the example of Christ. And then we get a series of quotes. I remember where the first one. Okay. Yeah.

participantOne:(1353240-1384820): So one quote from St. Ignatius again, then from St. Teresa of Avila, and then St. Therese of Lisieux. So St. Ignatius says, My earthly desire has been crucified. There is living water in me, water that murmurs and says within me, Come to the Father. St. Teresa of Avila, I want to see God, and in order to see him, I must die. St. Therese of Lisieux, I am not dying. I am entering life.

participantOne:(1392060-1410740): Paragraph 1012, the Christian vision of death receives privileged expression in the liturgy of the church. And we have this line from the liturgy, Lord, for your faithful people, life is changed, not ended. When the body of our earthly dwelling lies in death, we gain an everlasting dwelling place in heaven.

participantOne:(1412680-1443140): paragraph 1013 death is the end of man's earthly pilgrimage of the time of grace and mercy which god offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan and to decide his ultimate destiny when the single course of our earthly life is completed we shall not return to other earthly lives it is important it is appointed for men to die once there is no reincarnation after death gentlemen

participantOne:(1443600-1475860): We have one life to live. My wife and I, we run a marriage ministry. I have actually two podcasts that we do weekly, one of which is short form for married couples called Love Your Marriage. I don't know if you guys know this, that I have podcasts. I do that. But one line that I've been saying almost every episode of the Love Your Marriage podcast is, we have one life to live, we have one spouse to love. We have one life to live, we have one spouse to love. If you're a married man, and many of you in this room are,

participantOne:(1476740-1507800): You have one life to live and you have one spouse to love. Remember that. That's a good thing to know. Your spouse is your permanent neighbor. It's a good idea to love your spouse well. There is no reincarnation. You have one chance, this one life, to either live more and more according to the will of our Heavenly Father who desires our happiness and our good, who desires us to be amazing, who has created us for glory,

participantOne:(1508460-1540920): So we can live in alignment with that and live in the freedom of being loved first and then responding that love here in this world by loving our neighbor. Or we can choose differently and we get this one life as the Catechism says, this time of grace and mercy which God offers him so as to work out his earthly life in keeping with the divine plan. Wouldn't it be amazing if today we said I want to live out more according to the divine plan of my loving father

participantOne:(1541600-1571020): that I did yesterday. Paragraph 1014, the last paragraph that I'll be quoting from, the church encourages us to prepare ourselves for the hour of our death. In the ancient litany of the saints, for instance, she has us pray, from a sudden and unforeseen death, deliver us, O Lord. Also, to ask the mother of God to intercede for us at the hour of our death in the Hail Mary, and to entrust ourselves to Saint Joseph, the patron of a happy death.

participantOne:(1571800-1602360): St. Joseph, who according to tradition, on his deathbed, had at his side both the Blessed Mother Mary and Christ himself, as the image that we all should long to be dying in the presence of our Blessed Mother and in the presence of Christ. I don't know how many of you pray the rosary. If you're a Knight of Columbus, you're asked to pray the rosary every day, which means 53 times, 53 times.

participantOne:(1603260-1639300): You were talking about the only two moments that God has promised us. Those two moments are now and the hour of our death. God has promised us no other moments until those two moments become one and the same. This is all he promises us. He promises us now and the hour of our death. I'm going to read a quote now from the Catechism where they're quoting from the Imitation of Christ. Get ready. It will sock you in the gut pretty hard.

participantOne:(1640720-1675400): Every action of yours, every thought, should be those of one who expects to die before the day is out. Death would have no great terrors for you if you had a quiet conscience. Then why not keep clear of sin instead of running away from death? If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow. If you aren't fit to face death today,

participantOne:(1675920-1716660): It's very unlikely you will be tomorrow. I read that to my wife last night. She was like, oh, but like at a higher pitch because she's a girl. If you aren't fit to face death today, it's very unlikely you will be tomorrow. This is not something to put off. This is not something that you came early on a Saturday morning to just put off. Finally, the Catechism quotes a stanza from the Canticle of St. Francis, St.

participantOne:(1717879-1746460): We've been starting to sing songs, my wife and children and I, before we do our evening prayer. It's actually part of our evening prayer because to sing is to pray twice, according to St. Augustine of Canterbury. And every once in a while, we'll sing the Canticle of St. Francis. And it's a very long song. And there is this stanza about death. And I was like, wife, should we skip this for the sake of our children? And she's like, no. I was like, good. Good.

participantOne:(1746700-1782260): I'm glad we're on the same page. It's still uncomfortable. So this is a different translation than the one that I would sing, but this is the one the catechism offers us. Praised are you, my Lord, for our sister bodily death, from whom no living man can escape. Woe on those who will die in mortal sin. Blessed are they who will be found in your most holy will, for the second death will not harm them. Praised are you, my Lord,

participantOne:(1782720-1823820): for our sister bodily death. To have that approach to our own death, to be grateful to God, to praise him that our death will come, and to know that there are really two options here. We can die in mortal sin, cut off from the grace of God by our own free will, or we can find the blessing of living more and more in the will of God the Father. Tempus Fugit Memento Mori.

participantOne:(1824240-1862960): Would you guys do me the favor and say it with me? Tempus Fugit Memento Mori. Time flies. Remember death. I would like to invite you to pray the fifth sorrowful mystery of the rosary with me, which is the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. God wants us to know that we will not face death alone if we face it with him.

participantOne:(1867660-1896360): In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. The fifth sorrowful mystery, the crucifixion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.

participantOne:(1897160-1928120): Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Amen.

participantOne:(1929200-1955980): Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.

participantOne:(1956360-1967200): Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.

participantOne:(1967840-1997020): hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mother of god pray for us sinners now and the hour of our death hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mother of god pray for us sinners now hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus

participantOne:(1998440-2019920): god pray for us sinners now at the hour of death hail mary full of grace the lord is with thee blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb jesus holy mother god pray for us sinners now at the hour of death glory be to the father and to the son and to the holy spirit as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be

participantOne:(2020200-2045660): without it. Amen. Oh my Jesus, forgive us our sins, save us from the fires of hell, and lead all souls to heaven, especially those in most need of thy mercy. Amen. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Alright, take a few minutes for some more coffee, donuts, and then please join each other in a small group conversation in the back.