In the Liturgical Calendar, we still have a few more weeks of what we refer to as “ordinary” time; however, I tend to think that as we move from October into November we begin the Holy Season that celebrates life and death as much as we do in the Lent/Easter season. Following All Hallows Eve, we begin November with two consecutive days that have everything to say about our life experiences of God and relationship. All Saints Day on November 1st is immediately followed by All Soul’s Day on November 2nd. All Souls Day commemorates all the “faithful departed.” I wonder though if we perhaps should consider it more as a day commemorating all the “faithful connected.”
The theme of death figures prominently in all of the Scriptures in the Liturgy today. The mysterious nature of death has enticed us as a human race since the beginning of history. Our ability to “know” that we will die factors heavily into how we live our lives. The German Philosopher, Martin Heidegger, in “Being and Time,” wrote about how our consciousness of death and the accompanying angst affords us the possibility to live authentically. What would it mean to live authentically? According to Scriptures today, it seems to somehow involve dying authentically. What could that mean? And are the two somehow connected?
Paul’s letter to the Roman’s (Rom 6:3-9 ) begins with the bold proclamation:
“Brothers and sisters: Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.”
Right from the start of life, we are faced with death. Paul wants to make sure that we have a conscious consideration of what this might mean. In fact, Paul seems to be saying that the way to life is death! This is what it seems that Christ Jesus was demonstrating for us by his life and death. Ah…but death does not have the last word, does it? There is Life after death. In fact it is NEW life. So then, there is something very special about death, and it doesn’t seem that it is a once and for all event, even when we are talking about our physical human death.
“If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”
I am very much struck by loved ones who have died and how their lives were “marked” by death before they actually physically died. What I mean by this is that they lived their lives to some degree or another through “little deaths.” These are the disappointments in relationships, perhaps illnesses, loss of a job, rejection from others, all those events and experiences that they were presented along the way. They learned to live through “dying” in these experiences. This is a way of dying authentically. Isn’t this how Christ Jesus lived? How many times was he frustrated with how people did not get the fact that God is Love and we are the Beloved? We hear in the Gospels and in the Christian epistles the suffering, rejection, and death(s) that he experienced, culminating in the Easter event. It seems that there can be no NEW life except through death. This is how we can die authentically – when it results in renewal and transformation.
Walking through Arlington Cemetery with the leaves turning reminds me so deeply of the reality of life and death and the Transformative cycle of LIFE (writ BIG). This is the Life of God, Who created us to be part of that Life! God gave us Her Life itself so that we could live in this Life. And this Giving of Life is Love expressing Itself – the desire for communion. God wants us to live in Him. Jesus tells us that in the Gospel (Jn 6:37-40):
“Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it on the last day.”
And there you have it…nothing shall be lost, Christ will not lose anything that has been given by the Father. The aerospace scientist, Steve Mills[i], tells us that time, space, and matter are not separate by only “different projections of the same reality,” and that even when particles within space separate, their “entanglement” remains even in their separation. I don’t pretend to understand this entirely, but it does seem to say the same thing, perhaps in a different way, that Jesus is saying in the Gospel. Nothing is lost and stays connected!
The God-connection – the Life gift in Love that God has given to creation and us creatures – cannot be lost. The only way it can appear lost is if we don’t recognize it. The difficulty sometimes is to open ourselves to that awareness and strive to maintain that awareness through our “entanglement” or connection with each other. This entanglement is precisely Love and relationship; and both of these constantly involve the death/surrender process. Death is what keeps us honest about life, by “crossing” It at certain points to bring us closer in together. And this closeness automatically sends us back out, now transformed, expanding towards each other in mercy and compassion. This is the way we can be “faithfully connected.”
As I think of the loved ones who have died, those beautiful souls that graced the earth for a stint of time and impacted all the rest of us in some way or another, I am mindful of how that connection of all of us in Christ is not lost, but only transformed, and the great mystery is to discover those wonderful and beautiful souls again and again in all we experience by leaning into Life in Love! This is that “sparking stubble” of exuberant liveliness described in the book of Wisdom (Wis 3:1-9):
“In the time of their visitation they shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble”
Peace
Thomas
[i] Mills, Steve. “Negative Space.” Excerpt from Oneing: An Alternative Orthodoxy, Vol. 4, No. 2 “Evolutionary Thinking.” Edited by Vanessa Guerin. Center for Action and Contemplation, 2016
I was anticipating this reflection. Thanks for not disappointing. This morning Walter (Walt) Guth and Terry Serio shared my consciousness. At the YMCA I my eyes welled up thinking about Walt and on my run, as the blades of grass blew in the wind, I found myself calling to Terry. So interesting. Of course our mother’s never leave my thoughts and I’m still bewildered by Lenora’s death. We have lost so many, but as you say, still connected. You love so deeply and it’s been eye opening to watch you process the life and death and life of those you love. I rehears in my head what life on earth would be without you and what life beyond might be if I am freed before you. Of course, those thoughts are never reconciled and probably never will be until they come to fruition. Until we know, today we can simply be grateful. We can simply accept that we lose nothing. All that is given is given. “Aint love grand?”