My Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ

Two of my closest friends are struggling with the fact that close members of their family are dying. For one the onset of the illness has been sudden and harsh, for the other it has been a slow and gradual process, but for each of them, and for their families, there has been the hard and painful process of confronting the inevitability and finality of death. Their pain has awakened in Susan and me a new awareness of the pain that we felt at the time of her father's death, and still continue to feel.

While many of us would admit to being afraid of death, most of us are more afraid of dying than of death itself. It's not so much the fact of dying as the how of dying that fills us with fear. As Henri Nouwen says:-

"The slow deterioration of mind and body, the pains of a growing cancer, the ravaging effects of AIDS, becoming a burden for your friends, losing control of your movements, being talked about or spoken to with half-truths, forgetting recent events and the name of visitors - all of that and much more is what we really fear."

But, for all our fears and concerns, when and how we will die remains in the hand of God. All we can do, and must do, is be prepared. That is the most important task of life, especially for us who live "in Christ" and know death to be the coming home to the fullness of God's love. And so St Benedict advises his community, "Hold death ever before you, for indeed it is."

One Benedictine monastery does this quite literally: the cross hanging on the wall behind their altar is a simple wooden one, identical to those that mark the graves in their cemetery. It will eventually take its place in the cemetery, bearing the name of the next member of the community to die. I am told that that cross is a very powerful symbol, a silent reminder that helps bring focus to the lives of all the monks and helps prepare them for their death. "Hold death ever before you, for indeed it is."

To hold "death ever before you" is not to live in fear of death or dying, but to live in the glorious liberty of God's love. Death has lost its sting and dying has become the process of finally so yielding ourselves to God that the moment of our apparent defeat becomes the moment of our absolute victory. To "hold death ever before you" is, as Stephen Covey says, "to begin with the end in mind." It is seeking to live each moment in conscious awareness of God's love; to make our lives a celebration of thanksgiving for that love.

As we journey with Christ through the events of Holy Week to the glory of Easter, so we cannot but "hold death ever before us." It stares us in the face, confronting us with vivid and shocking images. "To the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost blind you draw large and startling figures," says Flannery O'Connor. It compels us to see afresh what is before us, a God whose love is made visible in brokenness and seeming defeat. The events of Good Friday are not some tragic mistake rectified on Easter Day. The victory lies in the very death and dying; and becomes the gateway for resurrection life.

Tom Fawdry recently introduced me to a wonderful little book by Dietrich Bonhoeffer entitled, "The Mystery of Easter," which expresses this well: -

"Good Friday
is not the dark that must unconditionally give way to light.
It is not hibernation
that carries and nourishes the seeks of life;

it is the day when the God-become-human,
the Love-become-person is killed by humans
who want to become gods;

when the Holy One of God, that is God himself, dies -
really dies - by his own will
and yet by the sin of humankind -
without a seek of life staying in him,
so that his death would simulate sleep.

Good Friday is not like winter
- a state of transition - no, it really is the end,
the end of guilty humanity and the last judgment,
which it spoke over itself.

And here one thing alone can help,
God's act of power out of his eternity
among humanity."

Good Friday is really the end; the end of guilty humanity and the day death was consumed by love. Death has lost its sting. Dying, no matter how difficult, is a journey into the fullness of God's love. The brokenness of age and sickness, its loss of control, its dependency on others, are all marks of a transformation into the image of the God of weakness and humility. Easter is not about immortality, but about resurrection life, here and now, even in the brokenness of life. It is an invitation to live life in all its abundance; with each moment a sacrament, an encounter with the God who says, "See, I am with you always."

Let me end with a few more words from Bonhoeffer:-

"Christian life means being human
by virtue of the incarnation,
means being judged and granted mercy by virtue of the cross,
means to live a new life by virtue of the resurrection.

One is not without the other."

Live life in the sacrament of the present moment
Enjoy life in all its fullness
Celebrate resurrection life

+ Brian

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