Sweet Sister Death

Neil Gaiman, Death

Pastor’s Epistle—October, A.D. 2019 C

Early in October, the Church remembers the witness of St Francis of Assisi, who lived at the turn of the thirteenth century. Born and raised in a wealthy trading family—his father named him “Francis” after the profits he reaped in France—he nevertheless found his indulgent, easy life unsatisfying, and rejected it to wed instead “Lady Poverty.”

He founded the Order of Friars Minor and the Order of St Clare, today known as the Franciscans, and dedicated his life to prayer, service, and peacemaking. At one point, indeed, he traveled to Egypt in an attempt to convert the Sultan to Christ, and thereby bring an end to the Crusades. The Sultan did not convert, of course, but it was a fruitful encounter for Christian and Muslim alike.

Francis is probably most famous for his emphasis on the beauty and care of Nature, especially birds and beasts; hence his association with birdbaths even today. He composed a famous Italian hymn, The Canticle of the Creatures, in which he praised God and the blessings given to us by our Creator through “Brother Sun,” “Sister Moon,” “Brother Wind,” “Sister Water,” “Brother Fire,” and “Sister Mother Earth.”

On his deathbed, however, only moments before he died, Francis added one final verse, this one praising sweet Sister Death:

All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,

From whose embrace no mortal can escape …

Happy those she finds doing your will!

The second death can do them no harm.

When he could feel her coming, Francis asked the doctor to announce the arrival of Sister Death, and he opened his arms to embrace her with joy, for she came not to destroy nor to damn him, but to lead him to the gates of Eternal Life. He then passed happily from this world, and a hush fell over his room, broken only by the sound of his favorite birds, the larks, singing for him both in mourning and in celebration.

We are not used to hearing Death so highly praised by saints of the Church, let alone being welcomed into our homes and embraced as a friend and a sister. St Paul proclaims that the last enemy to be destroyed by Christ is death. St Augustine reminds us that death is not a thing in and of itself, but merely the lack of life; that God did not intend death, did not create it, and will ultimately destroy it.

Yet for St Francis, Christ’s victory upon the Cross, harrowing hell, overthrowing the devil, and rising triumphant with all the ransomed dead resplendent in His train, had transformed Death, tamed her, truly re-created her. She was now no longer a great chasm in Creation, a gash in the intended order of the world. Now she became for us a blessing, an escort, a guide for the dying, bringing Brother Francis home, leading God’s wayward children back to Him at long last in Jesus Christ our Lord.

October is unquestionably the season of death, both in the Church and the culture around us. But this is not to say that it is a time for despair or for mourning or for the needlessly macabre. In Christ, Death has been remade. No longer the inexorable force grinding all our thoughts and deeds to dust beneath her feet, now she is become the very portal to eternity—to life everlasting! And who would not greet Life as a sister and a friend?

Death herself has been inverted, redeemed, resurrected. And so we who are baptized into Christ’s own death, already died for us, and into Christ’s own eternal life, already begun, need never fear Death again. We can, in fact, welcome her as an honored guest, as a paradoxical blessing from God, as a dearly beloved sister to be announced and embraced with joy. God has conquered Death by making her His own. Or so St Francis proclaimed.

This is the real meaning of the Hallowtide: to dance in the face of Death, and thereby know what it is to truly be alive. All the things that used to frighten us—death, the devil, the darkness of the night—all are overthrown in the victory of Jesus Christ. Thus now are we freed to laugh at them, even to dance with them, for never again can they truly do us harm. Even amongst the tombs we stand in Christ defiant, proclaiming to the world that Death has no dominion here. All who fall shall rise again!

Happy Halloween, all you souls.

In the Name of the Father, and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

P.S.—Save some dates for me if you would.

(1) On 13 October, our Adult Formation topic will be the Spirit World: ghosts, goblins, gods, angels, devils, and everything in between.

(2) Our October Pub Theology will raise a pint and a prayer at Backwoods BBQ starting at six on Thursday the seventeenth.

(3) Gather at Greenwood Cemetery on the evening of Wednesday, 30 October, for candlelight vespers sung in the graveyard. It might be wise to bring a flashlight.

(4) We’ll discuss Ray Bradbury’s The Halloween Tree for our monthly Book Group after worship on Sunday, 27 October.

(5) And for the Hallowtide itself, 31 October to 2 November, we’re going to be putting together a pumpkin labyrinth around our fire pit. Trick-or-treaters and other guests will be welcome to walk the path, say a prayer, and throw their petitions into the flames. We just need pumpkins!