Death is on the mind – Paul is suffering, chained in prison – no more missionary journeys, his martyrdom is not far away – Death approaches – death’s reality is unavoidable – This is the setting for this letter to Timothy.
Death – it seems to be a topic that no one wants to talk or think about –There is a tendency to avoid the word – it is not death – it is having “passed away” – The odd quiet that often happens in conversation with someone who has recently lost a family member or friend.
No one likes death - No doctor wants to bring the news of death or even the risk of death to a family. – Stay away – no longer do most people die at home – instead, it is at the hospital or nursing home – it makes it easy for us not to face it. – keep death far away.
Death is pushed away from daily life – yet mortality faces us. St Benedict wrote in his rule that one should ““Keep death daily before your eyes” – For death cannot be avoided – we run, we hide, but last I checked, the estimated mortality rate of life is still 100% - Death will come – what do we make of it? How do we face it?
It is true that death is not good. It is evil – it is through sin that death has entered the world. Death is destruction, the end of a life, a life made in the likeness and image of God – all life has value - We have no desire for death, nor should we. We want life and health for all, as we should
Yet JRR Tolkien, in his legendarium of Middle Earth, the background to the Lord of the Rings - presents an interesting take on the question. He has immortal elves who live forever in his world. But then there are also men – and men are special for they have a unique gift – they have been given the gift of morality - “Death is their fate, […] which as Time wears even the Powers shall envy.” – a gift – what is good about death?
It is not that death is good – it is not – but it does point to something very real – In the words of Tolkien, “the hearts of Men should seek beyond the world and should find no rest therein;” – we seek something beyond. – What is in this world, as good as it is, with as much joy as there may be, does not satisfy –
What would life on this earth be like forever? It sounds great – yet something in it is empty. – There is the obvious - separation forever from those who have gone before us. – but also, small things - little annoyances - Fred plays music too loud. Jill never unloads the dishwasher – Bob will not take the trash out – this can become unbearable knowing that they will never change – this is how it is forever. – For this world is a world wounded by sin and death – by separation from God. - there is sin in this world – an eternity in a place of sin ends up being hell.
We can find happiness here on earth – but it is always incomplete, imperfect, lacking something – always leaving us longing for more – There is a corruption due to sin – true and perfect happiness is only found in God – in heaven. No matter how happy we are, there is always something missing on earth – for we seek something beyond – we seek God himself. We seek heaven.
Death is not good – yet it is the only way to pass from this life to the next. - and so we return to St Paul, himself facing down death. What is his advice? “Remember Jesus Christ, raised from the dead” – For Christ conquered death – such that death is not the final say. – “If we have died with him we shall also live with him;”
Death is not to be feared, for, in Christ, it is but a crossing of the veil to the other side, a necessary journey on the road to heaven. If things get hard? “if we persevere we shall also reign with him.” – Christ will be with us the whole way if only we remain faithful.
Christ will only leave us if we leave him – for “if we deny him he will deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself.” – He is the solid rock, unchanging
Tolkien’s idea of death as a gift is not literal; it does come from fantasy books. It is not that death is good – but it captures something so true – that we long for something beyond this world, something that cannot be satisfied in this world. Something that can only be found by leaving this world of sin and death – Facing this, St Paul looks to Christ’s resurrection in his trustworthy saying.
Following St Benedict, do we “Keep death daily before us?” – not wanting death or thinking that it is good, but also not in fear – but being ready, looking to God, to heaven? For “if we have died with him we shall also live with him; if we persevere we shall also reign with him.