The Catholic Faith
Eschatology
Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA)
St. John Bosco Catholic Church
3
Handout
SAINT THOMAS MORE ON DEATH
The following quotations are from the play A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt about
the life and martyrdom of Saint Thomas More. Although it is a play, it is historically
accurate. Some of the dialogue from the play’s trial comes from official records of the
real trial.
“Death comes for us all, my lords, yes, even for kings he comes, to whom amidst all
their royalty and brute strength he will neither kneel nor make them any reverence nor
pleasantly desire them to come forth, but roughly grasp them by the very breast and
rattle them until they be stark dead! So causing their bodies to be buried in a pit and
sending them to judgment… whereof at their death their success is uncertain.”
- Saint Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons
“For our own deaths… dare we for shame enter the kingdom with ease when Our Lord
himself entered with so much pain?”
- Saint Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons
“Death comes for us all; even at our birth, death does but stand aside a little. And every
day he looks towards us and muses to himself whether that day or the next he will draw
nigh. It is the law of nature and the will of God.”
- Saint Thomas More in A Man for All Seasons
SAINT JOSEPH, PATRON OF A HAPPY DEATH
Saint Joseph, husband of Mary and foster-father of Jesus, is the patron of the Universal
Church and of a happy death. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that Joseph was “a just
man” (Matthew 1:19). It also tells us of Joseph’s love for Mary and that he travelled all
the way to Egypt at the word of an angel to protect Jesus. There is a tradition in the
East that Jesus and Mary were both present at Joseph’s death. With that company, his
death must have been a happy one. Although we cannot have Mary and Jesus
Physically with us, we can receive Jesus in viaticum and, through the other sacraments,
our prayers, and the intercession of Saint Joseph and Mary, we, too, can have a happy
death.
PRAYER TO SAINT JOSEPH FOR A HAPPY DEATH
Sweet Saint Joseph be thou near me,
when my soul is called away,
from this earth so dark and dreary,
to the bright eternal day.
Bring with thee my dearest Jesus,
in whose wounds I fain would hide,
and with Mary my sweet mother,
come dear father to my side.