Thoughts on Mortality: Ashes and Dust...

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With these words, we are invited into the season of Lent:

We begin our journey to Easter with the sign of ashes,
an ancient sign,
speaking of the frailty and uncertainty of human life,
and marking the penitence of the community as a whole.

I invite you therefore, in the name of the Lord,
to observe a holy Lent,
by self-examination, penitence, prayer,
fasting, and almsgiving,
and by reading and meditating on the word of God.
Let us kneel before our Creator and Redeemer.

On Wednesday Christians around the world began the Lenten season with the imposition of ashes.  It was my third or fourth Ash Wednesday service - every year I am moved by the power and meaning behind the service.  We came together as a community to confess our sins, to begin our penitent journey to Easter, to acknowledge our mortality.

One by one, the sign of the cross was marked on our foreheads; with each person the priest told them:

Remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return.

I heard these words spoken to each person.  I saw each person marked with ashes.  I saw their human frailty exposed and knew that they would each die one day - what day, none of us can say.  I saw my dear wife marked with ashes and knew that she would leave me one day.  One day in the future I would loose her, or she would loose me.  Our children would weep at the loss of their parents.  I would weep at the loss of my love, my wife.  I was almost overcome with the thought of loosing my dear wife. 

It was almost a dark, dark, service.  But it is not.  It is a service were the reality of human existence is spoken clearly and truly - there can be no pretending.  We are to look death in the face.  That is a difficult thing to do.  We are asked, as a community, to walk in the valley of the shadow of death.  But, fortunately, we do not walk alone.  We travel that path with the rest of the Church, throughout all ages.  We walk with the support and prayers of all the heavenly saints and martyrs.  We walk in the footsteps of the crucified Lord, who traveled the path so long ago.  And this is exactly why we can walk it without despair: our shepherd guides us; he knows the way; he will lead us beside still waters and, therefore, we need not fear evil.  Therefore, we have hope because at the end of the road is the newness of the risen life.

As I tasted the offered Eucharist, as I knelt down before the sacrificial feast, I was that publican; it was I who, not able to life my eyes to heaven, cried, "have mercy on me a sinner".  I tasted that mercy.  I was given hope.

Lent is about setting things in order.  It is about preparing to greet the risen Lord on that great Easter celebration.  We wish to greet him with willing and ready hearts.  Thus, we spend forty days re-learning the deeper truths of life.  Christians do not fast because food is bad; we fast because food is good.  It is good and ought not be abused, but appreciated accordingly.  We pray because it is only in the seeking of the Lord that we will find him.  We read the holy Scriptures because it is through the Holy Spirit working through them that our hearts and minds are transformed.  We are penitent because we recognize our need for grace and mercy.  We face the reality of death because it is only through the recognition of our mortality that we can rightly judge what is important in life.  We ask ourselves for those forty days, "In light of our limited time here on earth, and our future glory in heaven... what is it that is important; what is it that is worth living for?"

Yes, we weep because the of the reality of our human condition - but how much more do we love because of that same condition and what it demands of us.

This Lent, let us consider what is truly important...

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Lent Approaches...

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I must say that I'm very excited about Lent.  Partly this is due to the fact that Lent is a preparation for the celebration of the Resurrection at Easter, but it is also partly due to the practices of Lent themselves.  Lent is indeed a time of preparation and as such we clean house and get things back on track, so to speak.  I constantly find myself yearning for a more ordered life; I desire discipline.  These are exactly what I find in my Lenten preparations.  I pray more - I eat less.  I focus my thoughts inward and examine myself.  I ask the questions that have been put off for far too long.  I take a serious look at what is wrong that in forty days I might celebrate all that is right.  I face death that I might welcome Life.

Just as I require my weekly cup of grace as I kneel and receive the Eucharist that I might live life to the best, so to do I require my yearly Lenten season as I kneel in prayer and discipline my body and mind that I might live rightly as a part of the Church, the Easter people... people of the Resurrection.

The time of preparation is almost upon us.

Kyrie, eleison

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Reconnecting with an old love...

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I was at the local recreation centre this evening.  It was the usual thing: lift some weights, hit the steam room / pool.  I've been trying to get more comfortable in the water and increase my water-treading time (previously at 2 minutes). 

I remember my mother telling me that back when I was but a wee lad taking swimming lessons people used to comment on how I looked like I was asleep when I was practicing the backfloat.  It's true, I was never a strong swimmer, but oh could I float.

Tonight I gave up on swimming and treading water.  Those activities are for suckers.  I reclined, stretched my hands back behind my head, and let the water carry me.  Yeah, I still got it.

There's nothing quite so peaceful as the gently undulating water as you're free floating on it.  I actually closed my eyes for a bit.  The only way it could have gotten better would be if the ceiling had parted so that I could watch the night sky (probably asking a little too much).  Truly a relaxing time.

Yes, it's good to be alive.

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Commercials that offend me...

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I'm sure there are people out in the blogosphere thinking, 'really, a blog post about something that bugs this guy - yeah, I'm going to read that right away'.  Well yes, it is a post about a commercial that offends me.

I saw this commercial and was tempted to throw something at the television screen.  Well maybe not.  But my very humanity was offended by the idea that our lives are little more than a series of selfish consumer choices.  Really?  Is having a child equal with that trip to Paris?  How about choosing that 'significant other'?  No, I think I'll have the dream home... no wait, the education... no wait... I just can't decide what I want.  Idiots.

Is this what we aspire to?

[That's right folks, the blog post title was in the plural.  I might see another that offends me and post about it.  But I can't imagine ever seeing a commercial that is as offensive to the ineffably majestic potential of human life as this one.]

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One of my favourite stories: The Martyrdom of Polycarp

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Excerpt from the Martyrdom of Polycarp (155CE)

And then, as he was brought forward, there was a great uproar when they heard that Polycarp had been arrested.  Therefore, when he was brought before him, the proconsul asked if he were Polycarp.  And when he confessed that he was, the proconsul tried to persuade him to recant, saying, "Have respect for you age," and other such things as they are accustomed to say: "Swear by the genius of Caesar; repent; say, 'Away with the athiests!'"  So Polycarp solemnly looked at the whole crowd of lawless heathen who were in the stadium, motioned toward them with his hand, and then (groaning and looking up to heaven) said, "Away with the atheists!"  But when the magistrate persisted and said, "Swear the oath, and I will release you; revile Christ," Polycarp replied, "For eighty-six years I have been his servant, and he has done me no wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?"


But as he continued to insist, saying, "Swear by the genius of the Caesar," he answered: "If you vainly suppose that I will swear by the genius of Caesar, as you request, and pretend not to know who I am, listen carefully: I am a Christian...  (Martyrdom Polycarp 9.1b-10.1a)

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The Arab World: A Time of Hope?

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It is hard not to get excited.  First there was Tunisia.  Then the dramatic events in Egypt.  Now we hear of protests and public demonstrations in Yemen, Bahrain, Iran, and even Libya.  Fueled by discontent at the economic and social injustices of their various nations, first the youth, and then people of all walks of life, have risen up to let their voices be heard.  From North Africa to the Persian Gulf something seems to be in the air: freedom?

The leaders of these various nations continue to fall back on questions of safety and security as justification for not heeding the people's cry.  Yes, safety and security are real issues, real necessities for a civil society.  But can you have a civil society without a certain amount of freedom (social, political, and economic)?

I watch to new and follow along as I have time.  Indeed it is difficult not to get excited.  I continue to hope and pray for the peoples of these nations.  Is a change sweeping the Arabic world?  Will I one day be telling my children about this time?  Unlike some in the West, I don't wish for those in North Africa and the Middle East to turn into a mirror image of the West.  But I do wish for them many of the freedoms that we in the West enjoy.  I wish for their voices to be heard.

How can I not be hopeful when I see people of all ages, people of different religions and walks of life joining together in their common humanity crying out for justice.  Peaceful resistance in the face of injustice gives me hope.

Pax tibi

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Thoughts on Christian Memorial Services: Sorrow, Joy, and Hope

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I took some time to listen to the audio of a memorial service for the Pastor of a local Church, which some of our friends are a part of.  I didn't know Pastor Bill; I don't believe that I've ever met him.  But he was an important person in the lives of some of our friends so I thought I ought at least to listen to his memorial service.  It can be an amazing thing to listen to the thoughts and memories when people speak of the life of a Christian loved one who has passed on.

I remember when my Granny passed on.  I cried and cried that night in my bed.  I knew, even as I cried, that my tears were for myself.  They were because of all the missed time, of all the things I never learned from her that she surely had to teach me.  I cried for my mother and my aunt who had lost a wonderful, loving, and giving mother.  I did not cry for my Granny.  Had I cried for her they would have been wasted tears.  Where she is, there are no tears... there is only joy.  I had tears, I had hope.  But Granny has no need for such things where she is.  No tears, no hope... only blessed joy and communion with He who is love incarnate.

I also remember meeting Greta, my dear wife's mother.  Well, I didn't actually meet her in person: I met her at her memorial service through those to whom she was a mother, a wife, a sister, a friend.  I heard tales of her, stories of a beautiful woman who enriched the lives of those around her.  I saw sorrow in the eyes of those who loved her and missed her deeply.  I also saw hope.  Greta now walks in a place that we can only imagine in the vaguest of ways, a place of love, a place of joy, a place of wholeness.

There is no abiding tragedy in the death of a Christian.  There is the sorrow of losing the company of loved ones.  There are questions of why - questions we are not able to answer sufficiently in this life.  there are tears.  Tragedy?  No, there cannot truly be tragedy when we have such hope, when those who have left us are drinking deep from the well of infinite joy and love.

I have not known Pastor Bill.  I have not been a part of his church congregation.  But as I listened to his memorial service I realized that the power behind the life that he led - the life that so obviously moved and inspired those around him - is the same power that guides my life.  We worship and serve the same loving God.  Those of his congregation who feel the pain of loss are comforted with the same comfort with which all Christians are comforted: the hope of eternal life, eternal joy.

We are an Easter people... a people of hope, of life.  Even death cannot change that.  Those who have gone on, who have walked through the valley of the shadow of death, those people have a hope that is now realized.  Theirs is a hope fulfilled.

For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.

Gloria Deo!

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