Jerome Novotny , OMI – It is estimated that about 38% of the Japanese population is above the age of 60, and 26% is above the age of 65. By 2050, one-third will be 65 or older. On the worldwide scale, people aged 65 years or older is expected to reach 1.6 billion in 2050. Population ageing is an irreversible global trend. The number of people aged 80 or older is growing even faster. I myself will become 85 this year.
What basic drive does my generation have in common? Simply put, the older we get, the later we think “old age” starts. Our basic fear is dying.
In short, we all want to live as long as possible. That is why taking care of our health and trying to avoid dangerous situations is so important. Reading in the newspaper about people celebrating their ninetieth or even hundredth birthday makes us happy. We want to know their secrets to living a long, healthy life. We want to put off death as long as possible.
There are some people who are so afraid of their own deaths that they have gone to extremes to try to preserve their lives. There are companies that offers to freeze your body so that, if science gets to the point of being able to bring people back to life after death, you can be resuscitated. One such company is Tomorrow Biostasis, a startup in the German capital that offers to cryogenically freeze a person’s body after they die. Another is Alcor which is the world’s oldest and leader in cryonics, with the most advanced technology of any cryonics organization.
In this relatively new area of research, is there anyone in CryoSleep right now? Currently, there are about 500 people who have had themselves cryonically preserved. There are 300 in cryosleep in the US, 50 people in Russia, around 100 in Europe, including more than 30 pets in Arizona.
In the desert climate of Scottsdale, Arizona rest 147 brains and bodies, all frozen in liquid nitrogen with the goal of being revived one day. This company will freeze your dead body for $200,000. The prices vary (poor service vs good service) and are expected to rise as related costs increase. For additional statistics click here.
Some investment companies will even set up a trust so that you’ll have money waiting for you when your body is brought back to life. Some of you may think that this is science fiction, but in reality Cryonic preservation is expensive, full-body preservation potentially costing hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Is cryonics turning into a billion dollar industry? The global cryogenic equipment market size was $22.32 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow from $24.45 billion in 2024 to $42.23 billion by 2032. With increasing popularity and steadily rising demand, the market share of cryogenics is expected to reach $17.4 billion by 2027. In its early stages, we see that inside the world of cryogenics and the quest for immortality is dominated by frozen billionaires.
Some scientists now are looking into technology that they claim makes it possible to download your mind into a computer program so that, after your body dies, your consciousness can still remain alive and active. According to them, it might even be possible to upload that program into a robot making you capable of moving around in an artificial body.
Although there is also a lot of money going into research to stop aging or even reverse it in hopes of keeping us forever young and extending our lifespans for hundreds of years, will cryo ever be possible? Many scientists have made it clear that this is currently science fiction, and the technology does not exist. Further, many are skeptical that reversing the process and reviving a person who passed away will ever be possible.
It is natural for us to want to live as long as possible, and even to want to live forever. Life is one of the greatest goods we have. It is a gift from God. We want it to last. Even though we know we’ll die, we cannot imagine ourselves not existing.
Excluding God from the equation, billionaires will continue in their search for immortality, creating false hopes for many people. However putting God back into the equation, you are definitely going to die. This is an absolute truth. No matter what we do, how much money we spend, we are born to die. Genesis 3:19 is very clear on this, “Remember, you are dust and unto dust you shall return.” Rather than fight it, accepting this reality leads us to live life more fully and with a purpose.
Studying and meditating on God’s Word in Scripture and teachings of the Catholic Church, we come to realize an obvious truth – our physical death is not the end. As a people we are on a journey. We are passing through this life. As travellers, we are heading for a future destination which is Heaven. When the moment of death comes, we will continue the journey from this world into the next. Life does not end.
The good news is that God wants us to live forever. However, He has a plan for us that is greater than any scientist could ever cook up in a laboratory. His plan is that we live forever not in this broken, dysfunctional world but in a world where there is no more pain and suffering. His plan is that we go on living, not in the bodies we have now that can be injured and become sick, but in a body that doesn’t age and that doesn’t suffer. God’s plan is that we live forever in Heaven with resurrected, glorified bodies.
That is why Jesus rose from the dead. He is the only one who has ever cheated death. When He rose from the dead, He had His human body, but it was glorified. It was a body that could pass through locked doors. It was a body that could appear and disappear at will. It was a body that could move at the speed of light and faster. He no longer had the limitations our earthly bodies have. Most importantly, once Jesus rose from the dead, He could never die again.
That is what we have to look forward to as believers in God. After death, our souls will be separated from our bodies, but that separation is only temporary. At the end of time, when Jesus Christ comes again, we will rise from our graves. Our souls will be reunited with our bodies. Just as Jesus rose from the dead, one day we will rise from the dead.
We all want to live long, healthy lives. We all want to live forever. God also wants us to live forever. That is why He sent Jesus to die for us so that, like Him, we can be raised to eternal life. That is what God wants for us. For it to become a reality, however, we need to be focused on doing His will in this life so that we can enjoy a resurrection to joy in the life to come.
If we still have doubts, let’s take a look at our Blessed Mother. Because she was the first to believe and because of her faithfulness, she also became the first to receive the promise of eternal life. Just as Jesus ascended into Heaven with a glorified body, so Mary has been taken up into Heaven with a glorified body.
The reason we celebrate this is that, just as Mary has been taken up into Heaven with a glorified body, so one day we will also be taken up into Heaven with a glorified body, if we follow her example of trust in God’s word and faithfulness to the plan He has for our lives. If we live our lives according to His will on earth, then we can hope with confidence that His desire to have us live forever with Him in Heaven will be a reality.
Why is it so important for us to believe this? Isn’t it enough for us to believe that Jesus rose from the dead and ascended into Heaven? Why does it matter that Mary was assumed into Heaven?
If we only celebrated Jesus’ ascension into Heaven, it might not be clear to us that we also will be raised from the dead. Many Christians might think that the only reason Jesus ascended into Heaven was because He was the sinless Son of God. We might think that Jesus has a glorified body because He is God, but that we humans can’t expect the same.
By assuming Mary into Heaven body and soul, God makes it clear to us that He wants us to be raised from the dead along with Jesus. He wants us to live with Him forever in a body that cannot suffer or die. He wants us, along with Mary, to be fully alive in every sense of the word. He wants to cheat death for all of us by robbing death of all its graves.
That is why it is so important to believe this. It gives us hope, a strong hope that one day we will join her and Jesus in the eternal life of Heaven.
We all want to live long, healthy lives. We all want to live forever. God also wants us to live forever. That is why He sent Jesus to die for us so that, like Him, we can be raised to eternal life. That is what God wants for us. For it to become a reality, however, we need to be focused on doing His will in this life so that we can enjoy a resurrection to joy in the life to come.
