Easter triumph
Arthur Middleton looks at the teaching of two
bishops on the subject of ‘Holy Dying’
and is reassured by the unity of theological outlook
I
t is often said that the Victorians were no choice but to let go of all we cling to, mas, churchpeople had been deprived of
obsessed with death but our present but God remains. God’s unshakeable love their liturgical services. This government
age is obsessed with sex. The arch- is untouched by death. He and he alone prohibition and the practical extinction
bishop of Canterbury’s Easter Sermon is free to make us afresh, to re-establish of the clergy made it impossible for the
speaks to a nation where people have lost the world on the far side of every catas- laity to obtain the Church’s ghostly coun-
or never had any consciousness of regular t r o p h e .’ sel, either publicly or through a spiritual
Christian worship and so have deprived as people of faith, we must prepare guide.
themselves of the Church’s ‘ghostly coun- for death by daily seeking to let go of The short book Holy Dying was writ-
sel for their emergent needs’, either from all that we cling to, so that our naked ten for Lady Carberry, whose confidant
Scriptural reading, Sacrament, Pulpit or souls are left face to face with the cre- taylor was, but she died before it was com-
from a spiritual guide. ating God. if we are prepared to accept plete. when she first felt the approach of
The archbishop speaks of how the in trust what Jesus proclaims, we can death, she was fearful, but as the thought
New testament and the Church under- ask God for courage to embark on this lingered with her she grew from fear to
stand death: ‘…the whole idea of a battle path. we do not hope for survival but consent and acceptance and expecta-
between life and death in the events of for re-creation – because God is who he tion of it, as taylor had counselled her.
Christ’s death and resurrection doesn’t is, who he has shown himself to be in His own wife died shortly afterwards, so
suggest an event that is ‘nothing at all’. Jesus Christ. as he wrote his own personal experience
Death takes quite a bit of overcoming… of sickness and death was in his mind, as
Easter may tell us that death is conquered, were the deaths of his children.
but it doesn’t tell us that there was never we as a culture cannot
any contest’.
we are warned not to try avoiding it
imagine that this
Transitory life
His first aim is to convince healthy
or to deny its seriousness, but to keep it
civilization, like all others,
people that sickness and death are sub-
in remembrance, ‘as the tradition of the jects they ought to think about and not
Church proposes that you think daily
will collapse
leave only until it is unavoidable. So in the
about death and prepare for it, it isn’t Dedication he advises that in contemplat-
being morbid but realistic: get used to it ing death the first thoughts should be of
and learn to live with the fear.’ Death can The Church must not only challenge the ‘change of a greater beauty’ that ‘calls
destroy anything in our universe – but human reluctance to accept death, but you to dress your soul for that change
not God. So to die is to fall into the hands also challenge any human acceptance which shall mingle your bones with that
of the living God. of death without hope, of death as the beloved dust, and carry your Soul to the
Keeping death in daily remembrance is end of all meaning. Death is real; death same quire, where you may both sit and
a source of life and hope that commends is overcome. Mortality is a fundamen- sing for ever.’
ourselves every day into God’s hands. tal fact of being human. Equally, we are The book’s five chapters contain, first,
what follows death is not just a continu- creatures made to hear the call of God, a a general preparation towards a holy
ation of our present life in slightly differ- call that no power in heaven or earth can and blessed death, followed by practical
ent circumstances but a new world. ‘Yet silence. This conviction is the founda- application as an exercise. The tempta-
all that God has seen and worked with in tion at the heart of our Easter hope. ‘The tions brought by sickness are listed, with
this life is brought into his presence once Gospel,’ insists Dr williams, ‘by insisting their remedies and the practice of graces
more and he renews his relationship with on both our limits and our eternal hope a sick person may practice alone. finally
it all, spirit and body.’ in God, safeguards equally the humility there is advice for the clergy ministering
and realism we need for mature human to the sick and dying.
Cultural denial life and the sense of a glory embodied in His aim was to raise people’s aware-
our culture finds the thought of death our mortality because it has been touched ness that in the transitoriness of life ‘we
too painful to manage and searches for by God.’ must look elsewhere for an abiding city, a
security in an acquisitive way of invest- place in another country to fix our house
ment in what will eventually die. it is the Holy dying in, whose walls and foundation is God,
‘mark of an inner deadness’. Nations will in 1650–51, Jeremy taylor published where we must find rest or else be restless
be eclipsed as resources of energy, power his books Holy Living and Holy Dying for ever’. whatever ease we have here is
and land expire. for individuals, mate- which became one volume. His reason soon changed into sadness. where there
rial things cannot outlive their ‘sell-by for such writing was ‘the degraded state is sorrow or an end to joy, there can be no
date’. ‘we shan’t really die’ is a cry from of the Church of England and the distur- true felicity. ‘we must carry our affections
individuals who cannot contemplate an bance of all religious life’ and ‘the dispersal to the mansions prepared for us above,
end to our acquiring, and we as a cul- of the duly ordained ministers of religion’. where eternity is the measure, felicity is
ture cannot imagine that this civiliza- in this state of the Church of England the state, the angels are the company, the
tion, like all others, will collapse. So the where the Prayer Book was forbidden Lamb is the light and God is the portion
Church says: ‘we shall die, we shall have in the celebration of feasts like Christ- and inheritance.’
ND
May 2008
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newdirections
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