There can no more challenging time in life than the time we discover someone we dearly love has died or is going to die . . . or that we ourselves have limited time left to live. Everything changes. What was most important to us up until that moment is no longer the same as it was. Things we have given little thought to before are suddenly front and centre. Emotions can be intense: shock, fear, disbelief. A visceral protest. . . and above, all a sense of confusion, frustration and powerlessness.
No wonder as a society we fear death, and dread the grief that comes with it. No wonder we are uncomfortable thinking about it, and avoid talking about it in conversation. The Grim Reaper, “divine”? That is not our first response. How could it be? Yet, many, perhaps most, who have experienced the loss of a loved one–even those who began in fear and powerlessness–become aware of a another change taking place. A shift in their understanding of what is important . . . a new awareness of what life is about.
When we experience someone’s passing, or face our own death, we are being offered a different “lens” which lets us gaze into a Reality so vast it cannot be comprehended.
That is when Death becomes Divine. It is a rare opportunity to explore more deeply into the Mystery. It lets us feel Love in a way that evades us in our normal lives. It gives rise to questions that carry us beyond the usual narrow boundaries of our lives. It brings with it a new appreciation of life. We become more acutely aware of the Life Spirit or Soul Essence that is occupying the body which we have always identified as “us”–and that we are so much more than our body.
And when Death comes to gather a Soul we love, we are being offered a divine invitation to look beyond the Portal through which the Soul is passing when it leaves the body, for a glimpse of where that Soul is bound.