Death is not normal! The late Protopresbyter Alexander Schmemann addressed this trend of Western culture in his little book
For the Life of the World. He made many of the same notes: that we tend to treat death as something perfectly normal, albiet unpleasant and best hygenized and shunted away out of view. On the other hand, Schmemann says, the 'religious' view is that death is merely a part of God's plan. Neither view, of course, is true: death is awful, brutal, a mockery of God and man and all being. It is something to be treated as a reviled enemy. We are to recognize Christ's defeat of death, and thus we have reason not to fear it. However, this does not mean we should accept it; rather, we should despise it all the more.