All Saints, Nov 1, 2019

1 Thessalonians IV, 13-18

(But) we do not want to leave you ignorant, brothers, about those who have

fallen into the sleep of death, so that you do not distress yourselves as those others do, who have no hope. For as we know in our hearts that Jesus died and has overcome death through resurrection, so also will God lead with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus. For we tell you this in the word of the lord, that we who are living and are remaining for the revelation of Christ's presence will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord, himself will come down from heaven at the shout of command, at the archangel's call, and at the sound of the trumpet of God, and those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise; afterward we, the living, who are left, will be caught up together with them in a cloud to the meeting with the Lord in the realm of the air. Therefore, encourage one another with words such as these.

All Saints Day

Evelyn De Morgan

November 1, 2019

1 Thessalonians 4: 13-18

We know the story of how the archangel Gabriel announced to Mary that she would bear God’s son. There is another story that after Gabriel had left, a dark angel, whom Mary recognized as the angel of death, remained behind.  This angel told her that, carrying souls across the threshold of life, he was every man’s faithful companion, be they young or old.

The angel said that even God’s son would have to know death, indeed that He was born so that he would die. These words pierced Mary’s heart like a sword. Filled with grief’s sorrow, Mary could not understand.

So the angel of death took her invisibly to a place where an old woman lay dying. After standing there a while, they heard the woman tell her grieving husband that although she had seen the dark angel of death again, she was no longer afraid to go with him; for a smiling child with shining eyes was with him. The child had touched the angel’s dark wings, and they had begun to shine in all the colors of the rainbow. This was the most beautiful thing she had seen in all of her life.*

Christ came into earthly life, as we do, with death as His faithful companion. With His superabundant life, He transformed this companion of ours, so that by the time of His own death, the angel of death had been changed into a being of beauty and knowledge, a glory that serves ongoing Life even in death. When those who have died look back on the moment of their death, they see it as the most beautiful and inspiring event of their existence.

Sombart

One of the tasks humankind now faces is to find and face the angel of death while still alive here on earth. When our courage overcomes our fear of death, when we take courage and face him, we see that Christ, shining, is holding his hand, touching his wings and turning them into the multicolored beauty of our hope and knowledge of the living world of the spirit. When we face them, we see the faces of all who have walked across the threshold of death with Christ and the transformed angel.

The angel of death gives us the gift of knowledge and understanding on earth.  May those who have gone before us, who have beheld Christ and his companion, send us their inspiration.  May our thoughts, our feelings, our devotion live in the shining life of the Christ Spirit into the times to come.

* from a story titled, “Mary and the Angel of Death,” by Georg Dreissig, in Das Gold der Armen, (The Gold of the Poor) Urachhaus

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