Just One Word- Deceased

Deceased

Lora Parsons

The Ashland Beacon

I recognize as I begin typing my thoughts about this word that this isn’t exactly the type of word we might want to really be contemplating.  There’s something kind of harsh about thinking about it, maybe even insensitive.  I certainly don’t mean it to be either of those!  If you’ve lost a loved one you know the finality of the word, and I pray this honors their memory and offers comfort and hope to their loved ones left behind.

  The death of a loved one impacts us in lots of different ways—emotionally and physically.  We know that the closer they were to us, the starker the reality of their death feels.  We know the emptiness left behind in a physical sense--the spot they used to sit in, the vehicle they used to drive, the dirty clothes they last wore, left to be washed even though they’d not be used again.  And we know the emotional emptiness that their passing leaves behind in us--the little things they did for others now left undone, the loneliness of time that they used to help fill, the silence of a voice no longer heard.  To experience what happens after someone is “deceased” is not something we first think of celebrating.

  But I think there might be a celebration of sorts hiding in there nonetheless for those of us that are “alive in Christ,” as Ephesians says.  If you break the word down into the three parts that are represented in the past tense form of it, you have a prefix, “de-,” followed by the root word “cease,” and the “-ed” ending to send it into the past tense.  We know the prefix chosen for this root word means to reverse or put an end to.  Inside the word “deactivate,” for example, the root word “activate” means to start something or get it up and running.  This is reversed, though, when the prefix is added and the meaning flips around on itself, becoming the root word’s opposite.  We activate an account when we want to order something online, and we deactivate it when we wish to close an account.  The two words mean the opposite of one another when the prefix is attached.  The -ed ending moves a word from its present tense meaning (now) and reflects the action of the verb backwards in time (to a former moment).  It’s interesting to me what happens when you take a word that is about stopping and put these reversals on each side of it.

  Here’s what I mean.  The word “cease” on its own already means to stop or end.  So, why would we need to add the prefix “de-” to the word “cease” in order for it to describe someone’s death, or ending?  I believe the answer to that question lies in the truth that death is not the final condition for us.

  We are not temporary beings.  We have a body that is temporary, but we have a soul that is eternal.  This means we will all move from this earthly address to an eternal one.  When we make that transition, we will only be “de-ceased” in the sense that we will then be de-stopped.  Our bodies won’t tire.  Our minds won’t slip.  We will never cease.  If we have a relationship with Jesus during this life, our eternal self will reunite with Him when we die, and then we will truly live.  When we describe someone using the word “deceased,” we’re acknowledging that they have stopped stopping as opposed to stopped living according to the parts of the word–they have de-ceased.  They have instead, then, come permanently alive by definition.  Forever.

  Additionally, when we describe someone using this word, we do so with a contradictory verb tense, also.  They ARE de-ceasED.  Or he/she IS de-ceasED.  The is/are choice in either of those sentences is in the present tense, meaning the word describes the condition that they are currently in, even though the remainder of the verb is in the past tense.  If we stretch all of that out into a complete sentence blowing up the meaning of the three words and word parts, then “He is deceased,” is a little more like saying “Right now, in this very moment, he has stopped stopping…right now, in this very moment, he has ceased ceasing.”  And maybe even, that suggests to us that right now, in this very moment, when we have the ability to say they are deceased, what we are really saying is they have just now, in this present moment, begun living.  That wasn’t just the truth for our loved one at one split second moment in the past.  Rather, it is the eternal condition for our loved one right now.  They are un-ceasing.  Forever.  And, if we love Jesus, we’ll join them one day when we also stop ceasing.  Jesus “made us alive with Christ even when we were dead.”  As humans living out this plan designed by our loving Heavenly Father, we do not ever cease; rather, we de-cease or come truly alive for all of eternity.

 “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved” (Ephesians 2:4-5).