Two correspondents have pointed out to me that I have been unfair to the late Canon Henry Scott-Holland. The much quoted words "Death is nothing at all..." from his sermon The King of Terrors set out one of two positions which he was contrasting (the other was to recoil from death "as embodying the supreme and irrevocable disaster.") His conclusion was that both should be combined. I would not go along with his thesis that "The contrasted experiences are equally real, equally valid" nor with some of the other things that he says, but I accept that the poor man has been badly served by having the "Death is nothing at all ..." section quoted so widely without the context of his argument and contrast.
Many thanks to those who educated me on this matter. I will make a memento for the Canon.
11 comments:
Your Hermeneuticalness
Your charity does you great credit. Maybe we could all make the case that, if asked for "Death is Nothing at All" at a funeral, we insist it all be read. Death is very much indeed. So much that the Giver of Life died to deal with it.
We should,of course,avoid the whole problem by not having poems at all.
The whole "celebration of the life of..." protestant nonsense has totally infected Catholic funerals; I sympathise with any priest who has to put up with this.
My funeral Mass will NOT be a "celebration" ("wear bright colours") and there won't be any poems, eulogy or any other nonsense. I want people to pray for my soul (which will almost certainly be in Purgatory)and I want the priest to wear black vestments.
Jollity can commence at the wake!
A ship sails and I stand watching till she fades on the horizon
and someone at my side says
She is gone.
Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all.
She is just as large now as when I last saw her.
Her diminished size and total loss from my sight is in me, not in her.
And just at that moment, when someone at my side says she is gone,
there are others who are watching her coming over their horizon
and other voices take up a glad shout -
There she comes!
That is what dying is.
An horizon and just the limit of our sight.
Lift us up O Lord, that we may see further.
Bishop Brent
this is better!
Diddleymaz,
I'm not so sure this is better. It ignores the reality of bodily decay and suggest that we've just popped somewhere over the horizon for a while. Not the case. We are not the same, we are no longer body, not at least until we are resurrected body and soul.
Death is awful, it is only made bearable by the faith that we have in life after death, but it is not as if nothing has happened. My pain at the absence of a loved one is real, not contrived or foolish. To suggest that the person is still there just out of sight, seems like well-meaning, but fudamentally deceiful, consolation. We need to deal with the reality of death and then we will approach it with due respect and joy for the life in this world.
@Father Finigan
Archdruid Eileen & The Beaker Folk of Husborne Crawley :-)
Fraggles?
Rosa Mystica ora pro nobis!
Why not aim higher than simply resigning yourself to purgatory. Surely we are called to be saints. Many spiritual writers speak of the suffering in purgatory as worse than any physical suffering it is possible to experience on earth. I think this needs to be preached about more seriously.
@Toby,,you may wish to think of putrefaction, I prefer to think of the soul on it's journey, and I know what grief is like. I do feel that my son, my parents, my grandparents,my uncles , mother-in-law and her husband are just somewhere out of my sight, I don't think I could continue if I did not, after all why believe in "who ever believes in me,he shall not perish, but have eternal life" if you don't see it as just the next step on the journey.?
Little Voice: A good point, but I was simply being realistic! I do aim as high as I can, but at the same time I realise that I may not manage to hit the target.
At least I haven't resigned myself to Hell!
Try the daily prayers to St Joseph and to God the Father, for the suffering ,dying and souls in purgatory,
I have them on my blogg and say the daily.
@Diddleymaz
I agree with you about the soul and our ability to pray for and be prayed for by the dead. It is not that they do not exist anymore, but it is a different existence now and we must await the Day of Judgment to be body and soul once more.
Anyhow I shall light a candle at Mass tomorrow morning and pray the souls of all those you have lost, and for the loss of a son in particular I offer you my deepest condolences; no mother should have to suffer that, but all who do can take comfort and solace in the protection of our Holy Mother who suffered the same. God Bless you.
Thank you Toby I shall pray for you too, Please visit my blogg you are welcome, I shall visit yours.
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