We tend to nurse a certain naïveté about what faith means in the face of death. The common notion among us Christians is that if someone has a genuine faith she should be able to face death without fear or doubt. The implication then, of course, is that having fear and doubt when one is dying is an indication of a weak faith. While it’s true that many people with a strong faith do face death calmly and without fear, that’s not always the case, or necessarily the norm.
We can begin with Jesus. Surely he had real faith and yet, in the moments just before his death, he called out in both fear and doubt. His cry of anguish – “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” – came from a genuine anguish that was not, as we sometimes piously postulate, uttered for divine effect, not really meant, but something for us to hear.
