Brilliant observation from Fr. Schmemann:

All of civilization seems to be permeated with a passionate obsession to stifle this fear of death and the sense of the meaninglessness of life that oozes out of it like a slow-dripping poison. What is this intense conflict with religion, if nothing other than a mindless attempt to root out of human consciousness the memory and concern with death and consequently the question: why do I live in this brief and fragile life?

-O Death, Where Is Thy Sting?, pp23f

That, I think, is an important question for the church to answer in her Good Friday and Easter preaching.