Earthed in Hope by Alister G. Hendery

Author:Alister G. Hendery [Hendery, Alister G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: funeral ministry, Pakeha Anglican, New Zealand, bereavement, dying, death
Publisher: Philip Garside
Published: 2014-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

8 — A Time to Die

Ars Moriendi – Dying Well

For everything there is a season,

and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born,

and a time to die. (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2)

The season of dying may come swiftly and unexpectedly, or gradually, as a slow weaning from life. Often it is a time of waiting. It may be a few hours or it may be counted in days or months, but whatever its length, the Christian faith views it as a season that can be filled with meaning and opportunity; a time of active waiting. Amid the grief and separations that are experienced there can be the knowledge that the waiting for death is a movement not from life to nothing, but from something to something more. Christianity does not draw a sharp divide between the season of living and the season of dying. Dying and death is part of life. William Stringfellow wrote:

Death does not wait for full maturity and adulthood, for infirmity or age, for sickness or weakness to assail human life. The work of death begins at the very moment of birth: death claims every person on the first consciousness of existence. Death does not respect or wait upon the foolish amenities which cause people to hide from their offspring the truth that, for all the ingenuity and capability of human beings, death is present, powerful, and active in every moment, in every event and transaction of human experience.527

Kelly picks up this theme: ‘Even in our birth there is ending, the cessation of our total dependence on our mothers for shelter and sustenance within the maternal womb; one ending on an ongoing journey of beginnings and endings, and new beginnings. Loss and bereavement, death and dealings with its impact are part of life from the very start.’528 The Scottish poet William Soutar describes the inseparability of death and life:

End is beginning;

And in the beginning end:

Death is not loss, nor life winning;

But each and to each is friend.

The hands which give are taking;

And the hands which take bestow:

Always the bough is breaking

Heavy with fruit and snow.529

Death is neither an adversary to be defeated nor a failure to be avoided at all costs and grief is a natural phenomenon that occurs after any significant loss.

As I write these words I am aware that I am dying. Death has been part of my life since I was born, and the Christian faith confirms this.

From the vantage point of the gospel, we are all dying, and when we are in the presence of those whose days have grown short, we are not gazing in horror at those who reside in a strange and alien territory. Rather we are viewing, with love and understanding, brothers and sisters with whom we share an experience.530

Paradoxically, the Christian journey begins with death. In Baptism, new Christians die with Christ, which is a sign of hope. ‘A Catechism’ speaks of the inward and spiritual grace of Baptism as ‘the gift of union with Christ in his

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