Wednesday, March 12
Death as a Wisdom Teacher
“Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return.” The United Methodist Book of Worship
“By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return.” – Genesis 3:19
Yes, it is that time of year when we hear those words and are reminded. The great baseball legend Yogi Berra said “It ain’t over until it’s over!” But the services of Ash Wednesday remind us that after what Yogi said there comes that time when plainly and simply…it’s over. We are reminded of our frailty and our immortality And for many of us the whole season of Lent is a not-always-comfortable reminder that we are growing older.
Recently, I’ve been a part of a book study of THE MIDWINTER GOD, by Christine Valters Paintner. In it Paintner invites us to consider death as wisdom teacher. Most all of us fear growing older at one time or another. What if our culture were one where the experience and wisdom of elders was deeply honored so that the unavoidable act of becoming older, the surrender of physical health and vitality, was rather seen as being replaced with wisdom and vibrant spiritual life? What would it be like if death were regarded as a sacred threshold? What if accompanying the dying on their final journey is seen as a holy responsibility?
In the Rule of St Benedict he writes “Keep death daily before your eyes.” Rainer Maria Rilke tells us that death is a vital companion who serves a necessary purpose of plunging us into the wondrous depth of life. “Death is our friend precisely because it brings us into absolute and passionate presence with all that is here, that is natural, that is love.” Perhaps it is not just about physical death but all the losses and deaths and letting go throughout our lives?
James Hillman offers that “What is human is frail, subject to death. To be human is to be reminded of death and a perspective informed by death.” He goes on to say that if we are soul-focused we will be death-focused, to be death-focused is to be soul-focused.
This does not mean we are morbidly preoccupied. But it is a genuine honoring of the giftedness of the time we have. It is the grace of that gift. It is not knowing when our life will end.
In this season of Lent and especially in the words celebrated on Ash Wednesday, it is remembering our limited time. It is helping us to really reflect on and to recommit to what is most important in our lives. It is to open our eyes to the grace of our limitations and the fullness and wholeness that brings.
Rev. Larry Norman