33rd Sunday Of Year B
November 2006
We are now approaching the end of the liturgical year. It is a time when the Church reminds us of the last things.
The last things are death, judgment and Eternal life.
My first contact with death was sometime during the war when I was about three years old.
An old lady called Brigit, who always wore a black shawl, used to come in, two or three times a week, to help my mother with the laundry etc. Anyway Brigit died. At that time the dead person was laid out in their own bedroom at home by one of the local women, who would also double as a midwife if needed.
As was the custom my mother went to the wake and she brought me along with her. We were welcomed and shown into the bedroom where Brigit was laid out on the bed, just as if she were asleep. We knelt there for a few minutes praying for Brigit and then moved into the kitchen where we joined the other visitors and the family in a cup of tea and a biscuit or a glass of something stronger, as one preferred.
Then after an hour or so we returned home.
I can remember the whole thing quite clearly and for me it was a good experience. My background, and the whole attitude of my parents and neighbours, was responsible for this. Yes, Brigit was dead. She wouldn't be coming any more but she was alive and well with God and I could help her with my prayers and she could also help me. Eventually we would meet again in the Kingdom of God. What had happened was sad but a part of life and was accepted as such.
In Africa, the fact that you and your family were still alive was regarded as a blessing. You were lucky to be alive. Death was an ever present possibility. It was just around the corner and could happen at any time or any place.
One grieved for the dead but the fact of death was part of normal life.
When I came to England I was very surprised by the different attitude towards death. People, generally speaking, did not seem to expect death. Death was an accident. An avoidable accident. When it happens, the close relatives, in their shock and seemingly total unpreparedness, often looked around, in helpless grief and anger, for someone to blame - the N.H.S. or other members of the family or God.
I think we should not look on our existence here as being encompassed by the three words, birth, life and death but by the words, life, death and resurrection. Death is not the last part of our existence but the middle part.
When we are going to have a child, especially our first child, we are apprehensive about it. It is something new-It hasn't happened before. We also look forward to it. We talk about it. We joke about it. Above all we prepare for it.
We should have the same attitude to death because death is birth into Eternal Life. The only thing we know, with total certitude, that will happen to us is that we will die. So let's be practical and prepare our families and ourselves for the event, both mentally and spiritually.