Wednesday, January 2, 2013

Wedding death

I like the poetries of Emily Dickinson, many of her poems deal with themes of death and immortality. In "the chariot" she depicts death as a beautiful and joyful wedding. In her words:
"Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality".
I read this poetry in the high school and I could never forget it. Don't you feel that this poetry is very Christian? Don't you think that death is a happy wedding for a Christian?The Psalmist sings: "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me(23/4).
St. Francis of Assisi teaches how to die in peace and joy, he was so passionate about death, calls death " sister death"! He blessed bread, sung psalms and that was a beautiful goodbye to eternity saying: "welcome sister death"
Remember the first martyr of the Church, St. Stephen, he was stoned to death. Even in painful suffering, he sees divine visions and says "Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God." (Acts 7:56).
Recently I visited a funeral home to pay homage to a grandpa of 36 grand children. He was peaceful in the coffin with a beautiful smile. I thought he must be a man who had a happy wedding with death and a journey to eternity.
When we think about death we should not leave the death of Jesus on the cross. I do not think there is anyone who has suffered like Jesus Christ. According to the study Jesus was scourged 39 times and each scourge will make 400 wounds. That means there was no place on Jesus' body without wounds, so painful, unimaginable suffering! In this suffering Jesus asks the Father why have you forsaken me? And there is no answer from the heaven and theologians call this as "aggressive silence". But Jesus dies peacefully, saying unto your hands I comment my spirit. What a beautiful death! A death, like a child falls into sleep!
When I share this, I am sure a couple of people are coming to your minds who had similar death experience. Yes, dear friends, death should be a moment celebration for Christians and it is a wedding and a journey to Jesus.

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