There was a theme in late Medieval and early modern western Civilization that went by the Latin term: Memento Mori. In art and literature thinking about, reflecting on, contemplating death was a common subject. Take a painting by De la Tour entitled “The Repentant Madgalene.” The picture is only illuminated by a single candle and the Magdalene sits in the half-darkness examining a skull. Do you remember the poem by John Donne that begins “Death, be not proud, though some have called thee/Mighty and dreadful, for thou art not so.” In the contemporary world we seem to have abandoned that practice. In fact, just the opposite. We are guilty of the “denial of death” according to the fifty-year old anthropoligcal study by Ernst Becker. The cult of youth has replaced reflecting on death. “Seventy is the new fifty.” “You’re as young as you feel.” We tend to run blindly toward death without noticing. One of my favorite authors, Ursula LeGuin describes a scene where an explorer find a planet which can actually fortell the future. The practioners of the discipline don’t think it is a big deal. What, the practitioner asks the explorer is the one thing that is certain about the future, yours and mind? That we shall die. “The only thing that makes life possible is permanent, intolerable uncertainty: not knowing what comes next.” But we do know what comes, if not next, certainly in the future. One species of the denial of death is the “bucket list,” cramming as much activity as one can into today. Lent is much more about the “honey-do” list, fidelity to the responsibilities and possibilities in one’s daily providence. Let us live this holy season “one day at a time” knowing that by doing so we are preparing ourselves for the fuller and richer life to come.
