Memento Mori Part 15: The Bright and Morning Star has Risen!
If you’re really sick or chronically ill, your prayer life, even if you’re not a believer, becomes pretty simple and focused. You pray for healing. Healing in this life. Healing to avoid the chemo, surgery or whatever procedures are coming your way. You want more time and less suffering. You want time to enjoy simple activities with the ones you love- a movie with your grandson, a day of fishing with your granddaughter, a vacation you’ve put off with your spouse.
While you hope for God to heal you, there is a phrase in the Apostles Creed many cling too.
I believe in the resurrection of the body
If your body is a wreak and beat up, you desperately need a new one. You need the hope and promise that Scripture speaks of:
For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.
~1st Corinthian 15:53
In Emily DeArdo’s case, she got the call she was hoping and praying for. She was transplanted and received new lungs. After more than a month of hospitalization, she left the hospital where the procedure took place. She returned home, now able to breath.
Although our transplants were different, in many ways I relate to Emily’s experience. Four years ago, I had a bone marrow transplant to help me fight AL Amyloidosis. Upon being admitted into the hospital, I was given an exceptionally high dose chemo drug. Its purpose was to degrade my immune system completely. Following this stem cells were infused into my body to rescue me. The procedure was brutal. I experienced a heart attack during the process. I think of this as my personal death and resurrection event. Three weeks later I left the hospital to continue the recovery process at home.
Desiring healing in this life is a natural impulse as I said above. Desiring to enjoy life as well as we are able is normal. That’s what Hezekiah prayed for. He begged God for an extension of time and God gave it to him. Still, his extension of life was only temporary. That’s the way it is for all of us. Emily will eventually die as I will, as we all will. And what then?
The 15th station, Jesus rises from the dead, is our hope. Living Memento Mori means focusing our attention on God and the promise of eternal life. In my first post in this series, I wrote that Memento Morimeans:
Remember you must die
Because this could happen anytime, Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor, wrote in Meditations, “You could leave life right now.”
Because of our vulnerability to life’s problems and difficulties, The 15th station of the cross is our encouragement. Jesus literally and bodily rose from the dead!
Living memento mori each day means remembering and reminding ourselves that this life is not all there is.
Eugene Peterson, an insightful writer, pastor, and mentor to many, died in 2018. According to his family, “As he was approaching death it was apparent that he was navigating the thin and sacred space between earth and heaven. We overheard him speaking to people we can only presume were welcoming him into paradise.”
Among Peterson’s last words were, “Let’s go!”
As we approach Easter, let us remind ourselves of the truth of Romans 8:11:
If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Live Memento Mori by daily encouraging yourself with an eternal perspective!
Thanks for reading!
Curt Bumcrot, MRE
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