We know very little about death, i.e. the moment of death. What do we at that moment? How does it feel?
We don't know.
Theologians speculate about "the act of dying." Many say that death is always "a conscious act," even when we seem unconscious to those around us. It is an act we perform, not something we simply undergo.
It is also a free act. The freest moment ever. You can move forward, choose God. Or, you can move backward, reject God.
In John's account, just before Jesus dies, he says, "It is finished." Then John says that he "handed over" his spirit.
Jesus dies only after he has finished what he came to do. Then he gives himself to God, something he had done throughout his whole life on earth.
You don't have to wait until you die to give yourself entirely into God's hands. You are invited to do it at every Mass - to join with Christ in the giving of himself on the cross.
You can do it in prayer.
You can do it now.
- Little Black Book, Diocese of Saginaw