Death and Dying-Intro

Gregg’s Reflection

While death is a topic most avoid, I have thought of it since I was a young man. “Daily keep your death before your eyes,” said Saint Benedict. As I move through the final third of life, that’s a good perspective.

“If you hold a healthy awareness of your own mortality, your eyes will be opened to the glory and grandeur of life.” Parker Palmer

My spiritual journey began searching for “the path with a heart” that Carlos Castenada learned from the Yaqui sorcerer he apprenticed with and described in his book, The Teachings of Don Juan. So it is appropriate at this stage in life to adopt some of his teachings:

“As the Yaqui sorcerer Don Juan instructed Carlos Castenada: Ask death to be your ally, to remind you, especially at times of difficult choices, what is important in the face of your mortality. Imagine death as ever present, as accompanying you everywhere but remaining just out of sight behind your left shoulder.“ Bill Plotkin, Nature and the Human Soul, p. 281

Live everyday as if it were your last.

What crosses over with us?  Let me pose an idea. Nothing will come into God’s presence that is not of God. Then I suppose moving between here and there will burn away anything that is not of God. So, the more I allow myself to be shaped to be like Jesus, the more will come into the presence of God.   I remember a book, Five People you Meet in Heaven. The protagonist finds himself encountering his father, who is a little boy. My father made little of religion, and did little to allow himself to be shaped into the shape of Jesus. So, I can imagine encountering him as a child.

Or, as John of the Cross put it: Our Lord God is a consuming fire (Deut 4:24) and his power is infinite. He consumes infinitely, burning with great vehemence, and transforming into himself all he touches. He burns everything according to the measure of its preparation, some more, some less. It consumes not the spirit when it burns, but rather delights and deifies it, burning sweetly within according to the purity of their spirits. The divine fire came down at Pentecost, not consuming the soul, the burning does not distress it but gladdens it; it does not weary it, but delights it, and renders it glorious and sweet. St John of the Cross,  McGuinn, Essential Writings of Christian Meditation, p. 214-215

Journaling Prompts

How might your awareness of death lead to living each day to the fullest? How might you follow Chief Tecumseh’s advice to, “So live your life that the fear of death can never enter your heart.” What would have to happen for you to approach your death with no regrets?

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Scripture

In those days Hezekiah became ill and was at the point of death. The prophet Isaiah son of Amoz went to him and said, “This is what the Lord says: Put your house in order, because you are going to die; you will not recover.”

Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and prayed to the Lord, “Remember, Lord, how I have walked before you faithfully and with wholehearted devotion and have done what is good in your eyes.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly.

Before Isaiah had left the middle court, the word of the Lord came to him: “Go back and tell Hezekiah, the ruler of my people, This is what the Lord, the God of your father David, says: I have heard your prayer and seen your tears; I will heal you. On the third day from now you will go up to the temple of the Lord. I will add fifteen years to your life.”

2 Kings 20:1-6

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and staff, they comfort me.

Psalm 23:1-4

Jesus said to her, I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die, and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this?

John 11: 25-26

If we live, we live for the Lord, and if we die, we die for the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord.

Romans 14:8

When our life is immersed in the love and service of God, death becomes a transition moment rather than the dreaded end.

Renovare Bible Notes on Romans, p. 257 NT

He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.

Revelations 21:4

Ancient Writings

God spoke to Saint Mechtild, “Do not fear your own death, for when that moment comes, I will draw in my breath and you will come to me as a needle to a magnet.”

Mechthild of Magdeburg

Modern Writings

A man who keeps death before his eyes will at all times overcome his cowardice.

Thomas Merton, Wisdom of the Desert, p. 76

We are not here to live forever but to die well, releasing to the atmosphere courage, dignity and trust. Whenever we are able to move beyond the laws of the purely physical while still in form, we set aflame the names of God, releasing the energy and beauty of divine aliveness to the outer world.

Cynthia Bourgeault,” Wisdom Way of Knowing, p. 56

The friend who can be silent with us in a moment of despair or confusion, who can stay with us in an hour of grief and bereavement, who can tolerate not-knowing, not-curing, not-healing, and face with us the reality of our powerlessness, that is the friend who cares. 

Henri Nouwen, Nouwen Society Daily Devotion, 6/23/20

The tragedy is not dying, the tragedy is living disconnected from life. 

Kathleen Dowling Singh, Grace In Dying, p, 272

The genius of Jesus’ teaching is that he reveals that God uses tragedy, suffering, pain, betrayal, and death itself, not to wound or punish us, but to bring us to a Larger Identity: “Unless the single grain of wheat loses its shell, it remains just a single grain” (see John 12:24). 

Richard Rohr, CAC Morning Devotion, 4/15/20

Death is the means of our return to God. It is an encounter with Christ. It could be transformed into an act of worship, into an experience of healing. It is a friend, not an enemy. It is a beginning, not an end. 

Kallistos Ware, Orthodox priest and theologian (1934-2022)