Tuesday, December 04, 2007

Death is not the enemy

The knowledge that Jesus came to dress our mortal bodies with immortality must help us develop an inner desire to be born to a new eternal life with him and encourage us to find ways to prepare for it.

It is important to nurture constantly the life of the Spirit of Jesus - which is the eternal life - that is already in us. Baptism gave us this life, the Eucharist maintains it, and our many spiritual practices - such as prayer, meditation, spiritual reading, and spiritual guidance - can help us to deepen and solidify it. The sacramental life and life with the Word of God gradually make us ready to let go of our mortal bodies and receive the mantle of immortality. Thus death is not the enemy who puts an end to everything but the friend who takes us by the hand and leads us into the Kingdom of eternal love.


(With thanks to the Henri Nouwen Society)

I love this passage of deep comfort - it always reminds me of the end of St. Francis' Canticle of the Creatures:

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Bodily Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those she finds doing Your will!
The second death can do them no harm.

Praise and bless my Lord, and give Him thanks
And serve Him with great humility.

2 comments:

June Butler said...

And aren't we all born to die? Surely death is to be embraced as a part of life, as Sister Death.

Sometimes when we arrive at the thin places, we catch a glimpse of Jesus' promise of the life to come.

Mike Farley said...

Those thin places again!

I sometimes think that the religious life (at least in contemplative communities, or among people with contemplative vocations) is not much more than a conscious attempt to live day by day in the thinnest place possible.

Thank you, Mimi!