Requiem

By
The Revd Dr William Lamb

We live in a culture which is not used to speaking of death. As the President of St John’s College, Professor Sue Black suggests in her book, All That Remains: “in the modern world (death) has become a hostile stranger. For all the progress humanity has made, we are little closer to deciphering the complex bonds between life and death than we were hundreds of years ago. Indeed, in some respects, we are perhaps further away than ever before from understanding her. We seem to have forgotten who death is, what her purpose is, and, where our ancestors perhaps considered her a friend, we choose to treat her as an unwelcome and devilish adversary to be avoided or bested for as long as possible”.

Professor Black is a forensic anthropologist. She speaks of the way we frequently blunt the sharp edges of death. “We talk about ‘losing’ someone, whisper of their ‘passing’, and, in sombre respectful tones, we commiserate with others when a loved one has ‘gone’.” She asks why we use these circumlocutions, when they only serve to accentuate our denial of death: “With all our twenty-first-century sophistication, why do we still opt to take cover behind familiar, safe walls of conformity and denial,….?”

We are not used to speaking of death, and yet the irony is that every time we celebrate the Eucharist, we speak of death. “In the same night that he was betrayed, he took bread and gave you thanks; he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat; this is my body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of me.”

It is for this reason that we mark the Commemoration of All Souls with a Requiem Eucharist. There will also be a Requiem Eucharist on Remembrance Sunday. At both Requiems, there will be an opportunity to remember loved ones by name. These observances may have a sombre tone, but we do all of this in the light of our celebration of the Feast of All Saints, albeit in a minor key. As we celebrate the Eucharist on the Feast of All Saints, we remember that the Eucharist does not simply remind us of the past. It places before us a vision of the future. We are invited to open our hearts to the promise of eternal life - to the truth that, along with all the saints through the ages, our lives are hid with Christ in God. This is the hope of the resurrection. This is the mystery which lies at the heart of the Christian faith.