“Death is terrifying because it is so ordinary, it happens all the time.” – Susan Cheever
The angel of death seemed particularly busy over the past fortnight or so. But is there a time when he is not busy? The sudden passing of my colleague and principal of the Lester Vaughan Secondary School has sent shock waves throughout our land.
Herman Melville reminds us: “All are born with halters around their necks, but it is only when caught in the swift, sudden turn of death, that mortals realize the silent, subtle, ever present perils of life.” Henry Wadsworth Longfellow in his Psalm Of Life reminded us long ago: “. . . time is fleeting, and our hearts though stout and brave, still, like muffled drums are beating funeral marches to the grave.” Yet an American essayist who lived 1912-1990 notes that “death is not the greatest loss in life but the greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live”.
We all take death for granted until it hits near home and someone we know very well passes on. The untimely passing of Inspector Anderson Bowen, whose tall imposing figure was captured very recently in the media as he vowed to “clean up the City” was perhaps the first sudden death which reminded many of us of our own frailty.
When within hours the Royal Barbados Police Force was thrown again into mourning with news that another within their ranks had gone to meet their maker, the entire country perhaps queried and exclaimed as we often do: “Oh! Oh?”
Across the land the swift hand of the Grim Reaper continued. In a St Michael community, a well-known shopkeeper takes a quick departure and is dispatched heavenward. In a St George district, another good friend of mine “steals away to Jesus”. And as if to remind us that death is no respecter of persons or status, rank, or age, Attorney General Adriel Brathwaite loses his 15-year-old son while a two-year old perishes in a New York fire.
And so the cloud of death continues to settle over another family, over another community, over another life.
Volumes have been written about death but if we had a choice as to when, where and how we die one wonders what our options might be. Would you want to die young or is that a privilege only reserved for the good? Or perhaps you might prefer a mid-life exit or would you desire to use up your full allotment of three-score years and ten? But what if God blesses you with a longer life span like the late James Sisnett, would you take it? Or maybe you would say like many: “I ain’t want to be no trouble to nobody!”
Will Shriner, an American comedian, said: “I want to die in my sleep like my grandfather . . . not screaming and yelling like the passenger in his car.” (thinkexist.com) And of course, many of us would not want to die at all, though we all want to go to heaven.
I believe that the greatest authority on death is The Bible. It deals definitively with issues of death, heaven and eternity. In Psalm 23:4 we have the assurance that “even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, . . . fear no evil”. In 1 Corinthians:15 we are reminded that “God gives us victory over sin and death through our Lord Jesus Christ”. For all those who today have been struck like a bolt of lightning by death, in John 14 we are reminded and comforted: “Do not let your heart be troubled . . . in my father’s house are many rooms . . . . I will come back to take you to be with me.” (NIV)
The seemingly pervasive presence of death about which our awareness is heightened once more, is at best a wake-up call for all of us who remain, that God is in charge. Death, whether long, short or sudden, need not alarm us. Though it is perceived to be an unwelcomed visitor, we do have a say in how we die, for sure we will.
The good news is that you need not fear death, once you accept the lordship of God over your life. At death, believers enter God’s presence; “for the moment we die our spirit and soul go to be with the Lord” (Rev. 2:11). If you accept Him, “He will prepare a special place in Heaven” for you. Heaven will be a far better place . . . for believers as for them “to live is Christ and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21). In Psalm 116:15 we are reminded that the death of a believer is precious to God as “precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints” (NIV). After this physical death, believers gain eternal life as “he who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die” (John 11:25-26).
I dedicate this week’s column as an act of condolence to the relatives of my fallen colleague Diana Wilson, my friends Norma Maitland, Anderson Bowen, Agnel Green and to the families of all the others for whom the swift bell tolled recently.
• Matthew Farley is a secondary school principal, chairman of the National Forum on Education and a social commentator.