A Poem on Death. Karol Wojtyła’s Rozważanie o śmierci as Philosophical and Religious Meditation

Abstract

This article focuses on Karol Wojtyła’s Rozważanie o śmierci [“On Death”] as a philosophical and religious poem. Wojtyła’s text includes numerous references to other literary works; as sources of his meditation, the poet polemically recalls existential metaphysics (Heidegger) and affirmatively turns to the Gospels (the letters of St. Paul). Having discussed such notions as “maturity,” “mystery,” “angst,” and “hope,” Wojtyła perceives death as the readiness for the “difficult encounter” with “the One in whom one’s being embraces its entire future.” In fact, the meditation itself is the encounter: God – that is, you – makes dialogue possible here, as He posits himself towards the person, that is, I. The philosophers of dialogue know this relationship as “the possibility of being addressed.” Recognising the antinomy of “body” and “soul”, the poet presumes that the contrast of “life” and “death” is inscribed in it as well. As Pontiff, Wojtyła confirms this intuition in Dominum et Vivificantem.