Behold I Tell You A Mystery

Behold I tell you a mystery…..

In my vocation death is an ever-present reality, a constant that infuses the very pores of life. Not only do I encounter the intimate moments of transition in my own family and with my own friends, I am also invited into many of the life/death experiences of those who call me their pastor.

“Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed…”

Paul, in writing to the church at Corinth, spoke an understatement when he said that death will change us. Each moment of relationship that we encounter in life is magnified when we re-member, when we put back together, those moments of our lives that have intersected with those moments of another person who has died.

The unknown (to us, not God) writer of Hebrews was not wrong when he or she suggests that “Since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.” It suggests that all who passed on are still with us spiritually and they give us the strength to “finish the race” ourselves.

Death is a mystery and even in the midst of life we are being changed because of it.

Here are some other thoughts on the mystery:

Krishna, in the second chapter of The Bhagavad-Gita:
Thou grievest for those that may not be lamented, whilst thy sentiments are those of the expounders of the letter of the law. Those who are wise in spiritual things grieve neither for the dead nor for the living.

I myself never was not, nor thou, nor all the princes of the earth; nor shall we ever hereafter cease to be. As the lord of this mortal frame experienceth therein infancy, youth, and old age, so in future incarnations will it meet the same. One who is confirmed in this belief is not disturbed by anything that may come to pass.

... Seek this wisdom by doing service, by strong search, by questions, and by humility; the wise who see the truth will communicate it unto thee, and knowing which thou shalt never again fall into error. By this knowledge thou shalt see all things and creatures whatsoever in thyself and then in me.

Kahlil Gibran On Death

You would know the secret of death.

But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life?

The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In the depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.