Facing Death

What makes the heart beat? This is a “vital” question for everyone. Whether wealthy or poor, free or imprisoned, healthy or sick, religious or atheist, this is literally a question of life and death. The force that causes the heart to beat is a small electrical current. Life is governed by a small thing in the heart called the sinoatrial node. With each heartbeat, an electrical signal travels from the top of the heart to the bottom. As the signal travels, it causes the heart to contract and pump blood. The source of this current, and electromagnetism in general, comes from God. During an average lifetime, the human heart will beat more than 2.5 billion times. When this electrical current stops, our bodies stop moving, our minds stop thinking, and the body dies.  

For the average young, healthy person, death is far from the mind, and something to avoid thinking about, but as we grow older, we become frail and gravity seems to get stronger, drawing us down towards the earth as if it is pulling us to the grave. 

Because all of human existence has been confronted with this reality, it is no wonder that all peoples have contemplated this mystery. The Stoic philosophers believed that death is not only natural, but also necessary for the continuance of life. Death is part of the cycle of life. We can learn how to deal with death by learning about it, preparing for it and using it as an opportunity to live better and become the best version of ourselves.

Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk poetically reflected:

“We see the water of a river flowing uninterruptedly and passing away, and all that floats on its surface, rubbish or beams of trees, all pass by. Christian! So does our life. I was an infant, and that time has gone. I was an adolescent, and that too has passed. I was a young man, and that too is far behind me. The strong and mature man that I was is no more. My hair turns white, I succumb to age, but that too passes; I approach the end and will go the way of all flesh. I was born in order to die. I die that I may live. Remember me, O Lord, in Thy Kingdom!”

In classical western art the skull is a common theme. Today the skull and skeletons are a major part of pop culture imagery. They are ubiquitous icons found on clothing, tattoos, jewelry, graphics, warning labels and in people’s front yards during a certain season in the fall. Death is one of the most popular themes in movies and media, including the news. People are curious and fascinated with the horrors of death, but when most people are faced with actual death, they are terrified; that is unless they have already honestly thought about death and its consequences, and have seen the value of remembrance  of death. In Latin this is called memento mori, which translates as, “remember your death.”

Many of the saints and philosophers throughout history have recommended contemplating death from time to time, so as to put life in perspective. Museums and art books are filled with paintings of either a man or a woman holding a skull, with darkness behind them, and a single candle shedding light on the pale bone. They saw memento mori as a spiritual exercise to remind one of the contrasts between heaven and earth.

Although this may sound dark to the average person, St. John Chrysostom recommends visiting graveyards and tombs. This is not an exercise in morbidity, but a reconning with reality. He says:

“Let us go, I beg you, to the tombs and see the sacraments that are being performed there, see the ruined nature, the corroded bones, the rotting bodies. If you are wise, ponder, and if you are intelligent, tell me: who is king and who is commoner, who is noble and who is slave, who is wise and who is unwise? 

Have you not seen how those who lived in luxury, drunkenness, games and other pleasures of life died? Where now are those who went about the marketplace with great haughtiness and many companions? Where is this splendor of theirs now?...Where has it all gone? What has become of this body, which was honored with such care and purity? “

He goes on to explain:   

“The site of the tombs compels each of the viewers to think philosophically about the matters relating to their own death, and persuades them to think that nothing belonging to the present is secure, nor painful, nor good. The person persuaded of these things will not easily be caught by sins net.”

Memento mori is distilled down to a simple line in the scriptures, in the book if Sirach, one of the longest extant wisdom books from antiquity, written approximately around 180 BCE: 

“In all you do, remember the end of your life, and you will never sin.”

St. John goes on to explain that, when one is keenly aware of his own mortality, the brilliant things in life won’t be a conceit, and that which causes suffering in life won’t depress or upset, because one sees that: 

‘both have an uncertain end. For truly, often the person who is alive today doesn’t even last until the evening.”

In conclusion, St. John says that this ultimately leads one to detachment from worldly things, which in turn leads to contentment, which is the path towards heaven. St. Ephraim the Syrian wisely said:

“If you give all your life to the earth, the earth will give you a tomb; but if you give your life to heaven, heaven will give you a throne.”

The story of Lazarus encapsulates this. We all know the story of how he was in the tomb dead for four days and Jesus brought him back to life. What is not widely known is that after he came back to life it is said that he always had a bitter taste in his mouth. They say that, for the rest of his life he was quiet and wise, and didn’t say much. There is a story that claims he once saw someone stealing a pot. He smilingly said: “the clay steals the clay.”

In conventional warfare, the fighter is faced with the possibility of eminent death each day. The fighter is prepared and ready to fight unto the death. This is especially true for the mercenary who believes with their whole being in the cause of the war and/or the reward. In unseen warfare, we too must face death square in the eyes. St. Isaac the Syrian:

“Blessed is the man who remembers his departure from this life and severs his ties with this world’s delights, for many times over he will receive blessedness at his departure and this blessedness will he not lack. and he said: “Blessed is the man who makes himself deaf to every pleasure that separates him from his Creator.”

Most people seem to go through life in denial that they will die. Little thought is given to this impending reality. They are reminded of this when they attend a funeral, and then return to life saying to themselves, “Only others die”, and then carry on with eating, drinking, and immerse themselves in all the things of this world. The foolish person waits until the last minute to face death and then scrambles to find a used coffin salesman. The wise person spends their life slowly building their own coffin so as to be prepared for death. At the end, the one is frightened and the other is joyful.

The wise man, according to St. Isaac:

“...easily scorns the fear of death on account of his longing for righteousness, and he finds in his soul many reasons for the necessity of suffering tribulation for the fear of God. All things that are thought to harm the body, and that suddenly attack its nature, consequently causing it to suffer, are reckoned in his eyes as nothing in comparison with what is to be hoped for hereafter.”

Yes, each one of us will have the experience of cessation of a beating heart which ends in death, and every death happens either by physics and/or biology, but always because of biology. Life is so delicate and tenuous that we can die by failure of the tiniest blood vessel in the brain, or by drowning in a teaspoon of water, or by the tiniest of bacteria. And then there is death by way of a catastrophic accident or even murder. 

In the meantime, most of us get into the habit of functioning on a day-to-day basis as if we are invincible. This cannot be farther from the truth. Yes, the human heart must stop one day, but the heart of the soul is eternal. Remembrance of death is important because it reorients us towards the spiritual heart of the soul, and thus to God. This is where our longing for invincibility is realized. The irony here is that remembering death can lead us to a disposition for immortality.

In the writings of St. Isaac the Syrian we are given this sobering meditation:

“When you approach your bed, say to it, “This very night, perchance, you will be my tomb, O bed; for I know not whether tonight instead of a transient sleep, the eternal sleep of death will be mine.” And so, as long as you have feet, run after work, before you are bound with that chain which cannot be loose again once it is put on. As long as you have hands, stretch them out to heaven in prayer, before your arms fall from their joints, and though you desire to draw them up, you will not be able. As long as you have fingers, cross yourself in prayer, before death comes losing the calm strength of their sinews. As long as you have eyes, fill them with tears before that hour when dust will cover your black clothes and your eyes will be fixed in one direction in an unseeing gaze... O wise man, do not be enticed by the expectancy of a long life... take provisions for your long journey, O wise man! Remove the heaviness of sleep from your heart, O invited guest. Set your baggage in order for departure, O sojourner. The morning tide is at hand, O wayfarer; why do you sleep? Arise and prepare yourself…And when the time of departure comes, greet it with gladness saying, “Come in peace! I knew that you were coming and I have not neglected anything that could prove useful to me on the way.”

Lastly, the saint reminds us that this meditation is only to encourage us to take care of the things that are most important while we are alive, and concludes:  

“Do not fear death, because God has made preparations to raise you above it. To Him be glory and dominion unto the ages of ages. Amen. “

The account from the New Testament of the thief who was being crucified with Jesus offers an interesting perspective on memento mori. The saint of recent times, St. John Maximovitch († AD 1966), pondered this regarding the thief’s conversion in the face of death:

“The thief understood that the Kingdom of Jesus of Nazareth, despised and given over to a shameful death, was not of this world. And it was precisely this Kingdom that the thief now sought: the gates of earthly life were closing after him; opening before him was eternity. He had settled his accounts with life on earth, and now he thought of life eternal. And here, at the threshold of eternity, he began to understand the vanity of earthly glory and earthly kingdoms. He recognized that greatness consists in righteousness, and in the righteous, blamelessly tortured Jesus he saw the King of Righteousness. The thief did not ask Him for glory in an earthly kingdom but for the salvation of his soul.... And this is precisely what the thief, aware of the depth of his fall, craved. He did not ask to sit at the right or the left hand of Christ in His Kingdom, but, conscious of his unworthiness, he asked in humility simply that he be remembered in His Kingdom, that he be given even the lowest place.”

When we stop and meditate on death, most of us have an immediate feeling of fear. This feeling must be replaced with faith, hope and love. We must be just as the thief on the cross next to Jesus, who, when he was on deaths doorstep, said to Jesus: “Remember me, O Lord, in thy kingdom.” We must take comfort in Christ’s unwavering reply: “Today you will be with me in Paradise.” He was also saying this to you and me.

Excerpt from the book, Art of Unseen Warfare