From chapter 4 of the Rule of St. Benedict, entitled The Instruments of Good Works.

(44) To fear the day of judgment.
(45) To be in dread of hell.
(46) To desire eternal life with all spiritual longing.
(47) To keep death before one's eyes daily.

This chapter ends with these words:

Behold, these are the instruments of the spiritual art, which, if they have been applied without ceasing day and night and approved on judgment day, will merit for us from the Lord that reward which He hath promised: "The eye hath not seen, nor the ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man, what things God hath prepared for them that love Him" (1 Cor 2:9). But the workshop in which we perform all these works with diligence is the enclosure of the monastery, and stability in the community.

"To keep death before one's eyes daily." I used to think that was an odd statement. After all, if someone kept death before their eyes each day, wouldn't that naturally cause a person to be depressed? Shouldn't we downplay death and not speak about it? One of the things I've noticed about Thomas Merton is how frequently he talked about the possibility of his own death.

I think to follow the Rule in this instance is helpful to the monastic in the monastery and the lay person living in the world. I must remember my life here is only for a short time. Even if I live 80 or more years, that is a short time. I'm amazed at how quickly the first 35 years have gone by. When I realize the brevity of life, I want to be a good steward of the time that I have here. In other words, I hope to live life well. Death is a reminder to keep focusing on things that are truly important not those things the world may want me to believe are important.

I read once of a monastery who kept an open grave in the cemetery as a reminder that one day we will all face our own death. Monks don't hide death or try to dress it up as something that it is not. I like what Charles Cummings says:

I do not know, except by Christian faith, what lies beyond this life. In death I lose everything without knowing for sure that there is anything to follow. Faith, however, assures me that there is a God who is like a loving father or mother. The ultimate reality is not death and extinction. But God. (Charles Cummings, Monastic Practice, p. 192.)

Do I really believe that something greater is taking place beyond the grave? That's a question I'm forced to wrestle with as I am reminded of my own mortality. So, as I walk around the graveyard at Gethsemani, I think about this statement in the Rule: "To keep death before one's eyes daily." Those brothers of mine who lay buried under those white crosses are experiencing what lies beyond this life. They certainly have a fuller understanding of God himself. In the mean time, I have friends to get to know, prayers to pray, and life to live. I do it all with thanksgiving for life itself and the faith to know that death only brings me into a greater knowledge of God himself.

Peace.

Before I move on to the next topic of our discussion (purgatory), I thought this article on Kendall Harmon's blog was interesting. Should Christians be cremated? Good question and one we should give careful consideration to.

I have to confess surprise and disappointment in the discussion about cremation for the most part, which I am glad has been raised. As someone who speaks in churches on eschatology, it is a subject which I raise with some regularity, and it often produces some of the largest response.

At a MINIMUM my plea, to follow Paul in Romans, is for each person to make up his or her own mind. In other words, think it through. What I regularly find with contemporary Christians is that they have no problem with cremation, but when I raise objections they cannot answer them.

The person who raised this question has formulated the question exactly backwards. The question should be why should Christians do anything other than bodily burial?

I wish to press this question by noting that it can be shown that as secularization increases, cremation increases. This ought at least to give us pause.

Bodily Burial should be preferred for at least three reasons:

(1) Only bodily burial allows for honest grief. This is the least important reason, but it matters a lot in our culture which for the most part STILL lives into Ernest Becker’s book title THE DENIAL OF DEATH. in such a culture, it is all the more important to enable people honestly to face up to the reality of death. the whole practice of the “death industry” is in the other direction. Think about it. A coffin looks like a person–the same size, etc. When it is lifted it FEELS like a person, and the weightiness suggest the weight of the gift of life God gave. When it is lowered into the ground it feels like we are burying a person-same weight, height, etc. Cremation takes us away from these things–an urn is not the same size or weight, etc. Also, the whole symbolism of the pall as the resurrection body is altogether lost without a coffin.

(2) The whole symbolism of cremation is exactly backwards. Christians believe in bodily resurrection. They should therefore respect the body in every possible way–how does cremation achieve this? The images for hell are: destruction, punishment, and exclusion. Fire is a key element of the scriptural teaching (there is no evidence, by the way, for Gehenna as a garbage dump, as is continually alleged in the literature and was said earlier). If you say a prayer over a body in an English Crematorium as my doctoral supervisor Geoffrey Rowell did, you actually look into the fire as the body is disposed of. LOOKING INTO THE FIRE? What kind of symbol for resurrection is that?

In contrast, in bodily burial, we look to the Lord, we look to the future, and we confess our faith in God who will make a new heaven and a new earth.

(3) The whole structure of Christian theology ought to give us pause here.

Creation-fall-redemption-glorification is a profoundly earth-affirming and bodily faith structure. We were made of the earth and given bodies in creation, Christ took on full bodiedness in the incarnation and was fully bodily resurrected, and we await one day our new and glorified bodies. Another person in this discussion was correct to bring in the resurrection of the body as an element, but there is more: the whole sacramental approach to life and faith is in view. Bodily Burial is an affirmation of our bodily creation, an affirmation of our bodily redemption, and a proper anticipation of our bodily glorification.

By the way, does anyone have a guess as to why most Americans choose cremation? I find it often comes down to money. Cremation is usually less expensive. This speaks volumes about our culture. We are not to be conformed to the spirit of this world. Apart from compelling reasons to the contrary, why should we depart from the norm of Christian practice through the centuries? The ball is in the court of those who wish to defend cremation, not the other way around.

I support the idea of bodily burial. Many of those reasons are given above. What about you?