Refreshingly macabre

My friend, Dr. Kenneth J. Howell, has two doctorates and is Director of the Institute of Catholic Thought and Adjunct Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Previously, he was professor at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS, before converting to Catholicism prior to the turn of the millennium.

In a recent newsletter as Director of the Institute of Catholic Thought, he offers what in this era of consumerist self-indulgence and distraction can only be described as a refreshingly macabre suggestion. He suggests that although many people seem genuinely to be seeking God, that their spiritual progress might be assisted and deepened by the practice of meditating on death. He writes:

I have discovered through my 9 years of working here at St. John’s that most people on the koinonia list are genuinely seeking God. However, we who live at the advent of the 21st century have lost some venerated Catholic practices which animated the lives of Christians for centuries. One such form of prayer is meditation on death. It was recently pointed out to me by a priest who has been in Africa for over fifty years that North Americans try to expunge death from our consciousness but the reality remains. We will all die. Facing one’s death can be a spiritually health-giving exercise.

It is at death that we shall see life at its truest dimensions for there we shall see how ugly and threatening are death and the sin which caused it. But there too the sweet scent of heaven will waft through the air and draw us inexorably to life eternal. That moment will reveal the inner tension — fear of the eternal God, fear of judgment and yet love for that which we fear. At the moment when we are at our lowest, when we are the helpless victims of life’s harshest oppression, God’s loving attachment and grace sweetens our bitterness by beckoning us heavenward through a corridor in the shape of a cross. If we can trust Him at our most vulnerable moment, why can’t we trust Him more today?

Thank you for this reminder, Dr. Howell, of that neglected wisdom of the ages: momento mori!