practicing death

St Cyril of Alexandria talks to us about death today in A Year with the Church Fathers. He says that Jesus was laid in a new tomb, in a garden, because "paradise" meant garden in that time and language. And His death and burial transformed the meaning of death and burial into a brand new thing. It meant that instead of being forever separated from our loved ones, and the beauty of His creation, we now merely go to sleep. Paul refers to it as sleep as well.

And we know what sleep is. Every human being in the world knows what sleep is. We don't understand it. Scientists can't tell us why we need to sleep every day. They tell us what happens when we do sleep. They tell us what happens when we DON'T sleep - eventually we die. But they still haven't figured out why we sleep.

But one reason we sleep is that it is practice. Every night, we lie down and are "gone to the world." Every morning, we wake up again. God is teaching us, not just once, but over and over every day of our lives, not to be afraid when it comes time to lie down at the end of our natural lives. Because we will wake up again. He taught us to trust Him, and to lie down... to rise again in the glorious morning of eternity.

God, thank You for teaching us every day of our lives that we don't have to fear death.