From my coming book . . .

The original Ars Moriendi warns “for men seek sooner and busier after medicines for the body than for the soul.” This is even more true six centuries later with the wonders of modern medicine. There is nothing new under the sun. Ars Moriendi astutely observed long ago,

“And there should not be given first to no man too much hope of bodily heal. But the contrary thereof is now often times done of many men, into great peril of souls; and namely of them that actually and openly be drawing and in point hastily to die, for none of them will hear nothing of death.“

Modern medicine views death as the arch-enemy which must be always countered with all possible avenues; from their perspective there is no such thing as “dying well”. “Dying well” is seen as a paradox. Death for the unbeliever is indeed a terrible tragedy. But death for the believer is already defeated. The church alone has the final solution to death and the right perspective on death. For a Christian, Bene mori, est libenter mori—To die well is to die gladly and willfully.