The WONDER OF INCARNATION

THREE STRIKES AND  I AM OUT

I promised myself that I would make three attempts at describing on this  blog the  experience and lessons  I gained from my near death  experience in the ICU. Here is my third and last attempt.

A WONDERFUL THEOLOGIAN HAS TRIED TO EXPLORE THE MYSTERY--

In On the Incarnation, he writes, "The Savior of us all, the Word of God, in his great love took to himself a body and moved as Man among men, meeting their senses, so to speak, halfway. He became himself an object for the senses, so that those who were seeking God in sensible things might apprehend the Father through the works which he, the Word of God, did in the body. Human and human minded as people were, therefore, to whichever side they looked in the sensible world, they found themselves taught the truth."

I ponder that last clause for a long time --" whichever side they looked in the sensible world, they found themselves taught the truth."  This is a great way to express what I have  come to know in my own learning experiences--there can  be no antagonism  between true science and true spiritual teachings.
That gorgeous  phrase  from Keats also sums it  up perfectly:

"BEAUTY IS TRUTH AND TRUTH  IS BEAUTY; THAT IS ALL YOU  KNOW AND ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW."

Now  for the third and last time I will try to express some of what I experienced in my brush with death.
Death is not always easy.  That is why we pray for the grace of a happy death.  If death were easy, there would be no need for that special Grace.
But as I came close to death in Septic Shock, I  saw that there was a struggle going on in my mind- I could no longer trust it.
All my life I have  been able to rely on the steadiness and sanity of my minds perceptions.  But as  the body nears death, so does the brain and that changes the mind.  Those changes are scary and unpredictable.  And they feel like EVIL.

"A fish cannot drown in water,

A bird does not fall in air.

In the fire of creation,

God doesn't vanish:

The fire brightens.

Each creature God made

must live in its own true nature;

How could I resist my nature,

That lives for oneness with God?"

The Collect for Mechthild

I am left with the image of the Happy Death of Saint Joseph. He died in the arms of Mary  and Jesus. We can hope for nothing better. 

NEW PRAYER-- Jesus, Mary and Joseph pray for  me now and at the hour of death. Amen

Not the Memorare -- but I  hope I can recall it in my last moments.