Posts Tagged ‘Ecc 11:9-12:8’
The Defeat of Death – Br. Todd Blackham
Memento mori. Remember your death.
In the old graveyards of New England, these ominous warnings are carved alongside skulls into tombstones as a perpetual reminder of the lurking imminence of death.
Our own Rule holds a similar reminder in the Chapter on Holy Death. “We are called to remember our mortality day by day with unflinching realism, shaking off the sleep of denial.”
And the writer of Ecclesiastes has a strong sense of the changes and chances of life that will ultimately bring us to a point of return to the dust.
Each of us exists with a certain level of awareness of our own ultimate death. Some are more keenly aware than others. There are the natural consequences of advancing age. Genetic predisposition to disease, or the diagnosis of incurable ailment. And then, there are those who because of poverty, race, and exposure to violence are made aware of their death by friends and neighbors suddenly and tragically dying. Read More