For those who have been following this article in the Bulletin, I have been sharing thoughts about the steps on St. John Climacus’ Ladder of Divine Ascent. Just to recap, the steps that I have covered so far are: (1) Renunciation; (2) Detachment; (3) Exile; (4) Obedience; and (5) Repentance. His sixth step is Remembrance of Death.

We live, I truly believe, in a real death-denying culture. While I have no opposition to cremation, too frequently it seems, that when it is done before a wake it is a means of escaping the reality of death. Most of us find it difficult to think about death and to deal with it. And yet it is something that we all must face. It seems that people do not want to talk about death or even think about it, as though pretending it will never happen can somehow stop its inevitability. While phrases such as “death comes to us all” and “death is a natural part of life’ have become clichés, deep down many behave as though death only happens to other people. When a loved one dies, even at a ripe old age, the faith of some Christians is shaken. This is because we are so busy driving the remembrance   of death from our minds that we actually forget it is an unavoidable and a most certain fact.

The remembrance of death is closely linked to repentance, which is why it is the step that follows it. All the Fathers of the Church have taught that repentance is the purpose of our life. Death brings repentance to an end. What follows death is the fulfillment and the very consummation of our relationship with God here and now.     So in Christian spirituality, the act of remembering death is important since it reminds us that our time here on earth is all about developing an ever more deep relationship with our Creator which can only be truly realized when we pass through death to eternity.