Merton on Death:
He really writes about death in a way which is so rare! Death being the ultimate of our “sufferings”—whatever little trial we have today is not compared with death itself, and yet, Jesus swallows up death itself, also we are ultimately free.
So we have no fear of death in Jesus, because He has already overcome it! There is great freedom from fear in this knowing, and union with His Death and Resurrection! This is true understanding of death. Our life is already secured in His death and Life. So we are more than conquerors. We are victors with and in Him over death. death is, as Dylan sang, not the end. But more it is an opportunity to tell and union with His testimony. Death is an act of prophecy in the end. 
Death is not only not to be feared, it is a celebration of His Life! IN this way, Merton could call it a beautiful silence. So our death—the Christian’s death is a testimony of Christ’s Life, just as our entire lives are. But in a key or core essential sense—our deaths are a testimony of His having overcome death itself. For the grave simply could not hold Him! When Dallas Willard died, he simply said, “thank You”. We are lead towards that level of union with Jesus that my uncle also had at death. 
When my uncle died, he was talking about other’s suffering. He was entering Jesus empathy for others who were also suffering, through his own. My uncle was using death as a place of union with the suffering of Christ. Now, that’s how to die. Use our sufferings as a bridge into His, even in death, and then outwards as place of hopeful communion with His resurrection!