The Individual, the Church, and the Ars Moriendi (the Art of Dying), Part 3

This podcast will help you get ready to face the inevitable unpleasant things that will happen in your life -- things like trouble, suffering, sickness, and death -- the death of people you love and your own death.

The Bible says in Ecclesiastes 9:5: “For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten.”

The featured quote for this episode is from H.P. Lovecraft. He said,
"That is not dead which can eternal lie,
And with strange aeons even death may die."

Our topic for today is titled "The Individual, the Church, and the Ars Moriendi (the Art of Dying), Part 3" from the book, "The Art of Dying: Living Fully into the Life to Come" by Rob Moll.

--- Reforming the Art of Dying

In centuries gone by, Christians acknowledged that the dying process is a deeply spiritual event. Today, those who have been able to be present at the death of a loved one often agree, describing it as a spiritual experience. Yet Scripture tells us very little about the life to come or what precisely Jesus meant when he promised to come to take us to himself.

As a result, anxiety is natural and common among Christians. Even though the Bible assures us of our destiny, getting there can be frightening. A hospice patient once told me about his ailments: a bad heart and colon cancer. "And now they've got me in hospice," he said with obvious concern. "So I don't know what's next." He looked at me plaintively, but it was clear we both knew what was next. The thought of his death was visibly worrisome to him. He then asked me to pray for him. "That's the best thing, you know!" he said. A lifelong, active Christian who said he looked forward to being in heaven, this patient was still concerned about the process of dying.

The same was true even for those medieval Christians who learned the “ars moriendi.” Though the deathbed scene, when peaceful, comforted onlookers, it was not always serene. In fact, "horror and fear are the emotions most commonly associated with late medieval perceptions of death and the life everlasting," writes Eamon Duffy in “The Stripping of the Altars,” "and preachers, dramatists, and moralists did not hesitate to employ terror.. to stir their audiences to penitence and good works."

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