Peering Into the World of the Dead
At 1:52 AM on October 31,1999, a Boeing 767, EgyptAir Flight 990, plunged at almost Mach One into the ocean 60 miles south of Nantucket. Among the 217 persons on board were two friends with whom we had dined only four nights before.
Our friendship with this couple had begun through mutual interest and significant involvement in providing financial and volunteer support to St. Martin’s Ministries on the Delmarva Peninsula. St. Martin’s is a social service agency that distributes food and clothing to persons in need and also provides transitional housing and support services to at-risk mothers and their children. Over 20 years ago, Roman Catholic Benedictine nuns, who remain active at the core of the enterprise, originally founded St. Martin’s.
A major topic of conversation at our dinner together was the excited sharing of our friend’s plans for their long awaited, up-coming trip to Egypt. On October 31, the clock radio news awakened us, as it does each morning. Halfway through the news broadcast we realized that the plane crash being described was the aircraft our friends were riding. They were dead.
Between the living and the dead is a great gulf, a mystery to all. In the sixth and seventh centuries AD popular devotional practices nourished the religious imagination and yearning to “look away from this world so as to peer into the world of the dead.” [Peter Brown, The Rise of Western Christendom] A widespread reverence developed for the dead whose lives had been deeply shaped by sanctity. These saints, whose presence was often sensed by the people, were prayed to, and given reverential attention, in the firm belief the saints were hard at work imploring God to care for the day-to-day concerns of the living. Millions of Christians became certain that the saints in heaven were continually engaged in assisting the living on earth.
By the seventh century the prayers of the people also became focused upon the fate of the departed and the necessity for the remission of sins. Front and center for Christians was “the dread occasion when, at the moment of death, the individual soul confronted the massed ranks of angels, saints, and greedy demons who guarded the thresholds of Heaven and Hell.” The living assumed the duty of praying for the individual souls of the departed so that each soul’s sins might be forgiven and the fate of hell avoided. The most important drama of prayer, the Lord’s Supper or Mass, became the popular and necessary means of caring for the soul of the departed.
The two-way flow of prayer and care across the gulf between the living and the dead continued from 700 until the Protestant Reformation, when it came under attack from the reformers. Thomas Cranmer, the author of the first two Anglican Prayer Books, made certain, in the final 1552 Book to remove any language in the burial rites that might be interpreted as prayers to the soul of the recently departed. As Episcopalian inheritors of Cranmer’s traditions, my wife Win and I were continually surprised in the months following the death of our friends to hear the Benedictine nuns associated with St. Martin’s expressing their gratitude for the intercession of our departed friends. Over the seven plus years since the plane crash, every step forward by the Ministries elicits comments from the Sisters remarking upon the devoted attention of these two souls in heaven so obviously praying for the well being of our work.
I talk often with Win about the impact of this whole experience – the tragic crash of Flight 990, the sudden loss of treasured friends, the way in which we continue to feel their presence with us in the work we do for St. Martin’s, the genuine warmth of the Sisters in their never failing gratitude to the departed for their care and attention. I have come to realize that we are experiencing what millions of Christians for centuries routinely accepted as the work of the saints in heaven.
I understand why the reformers had such a difficult time attempting to remove this grass root piety from the people. Diarmaid MacCulloch, in his masterful history of the Reformation, makes the comment that Protestantism created “a division between the dead and the living much more radical and impermeable than Catholicism.” I have now experienced the reality of this judgment. Without expecting it to happen, Win and I have both been supported and encouraged by these many reminders of two well loved souls in heaven. In some mysterious manner, we have received the gift of a thinning of the division between the living and the dead, making that division seem, for a time, more permeable and less radical.
By
James Anderson
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July 3, 2007; 7:24 AM ET
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THE WORST WAY OF CALLING NAME TO THE ALMIGHTY CREATOR:
When Christians say that Jesus(A.S) was the only BEGOTTEN and not MADE like Adam (A.S) or like all other creatures or creations?
What are you insinuating??? That God Almighty Him self came down to perform the lowest form of animal act like dog, donkey or monkey,i.e., sexual reproduction?
And on top of it Jesus(A.S) was His begotten son not ligitimate!!!!!!!!!!
THAT IS THE WORST KIND OF ABUSE AND NAMING ANY BODY COULD HAVE DIRECTED TOWARDS THE GOD ALMIGHTY!!
Well down you so called CHRISTIAN believers??
You are getting your rewards in this world and will definitely get infinitely here after!!!!!!
YOUR BEST OF BEST ARE PREIST, BISHOP, CARDINAL AND POP AND NUNS RIGHT!
You say Nuns don't marry there whole life b/cause they are married to the Father. Alright!
My Question is Your Preist up to Pop, are they also married to the Father?????
Extremely Natural concept, behaviour or shall I say believe!
Posted by: Moody | December 16, 2007 4:06 AM
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Current concepts of heaven and hell were borne of superstition ages ago. These deceptions have been carried down to today. Overall, people really dont know any different. Such is the reason why what is said at funerals, etc. Scripture tells us that confusion would be the outcome of mankind making their own choice about life, including about God. Rev 12:9 shows a whole world deceived. But scripture also tells us that no man has ascended to heaven, there will be 2 resurrections, a new heaven and earth (where Jesus Christ will return and reign on earth for a 1000 years), and no red-horned devils and demons with pitchforks spinning souls on a spit over a fire, etc. There will be a consuming fire, scripture states, after the final Great White Throne judgement, not a fire to live in for eternity.
Posted by: WHAT? | July 4, 2007 8:39 AM
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If mice could think,it wouldn't be long before
they'd think-up a Mousegod because it feels so good.
"There's just gotta be Mousegod out there somewhere.
I can feel him in my heart.Don't tell me we're all alone down here.I refuse to believe it you bad mouse."
They'd invent a cozy Mouseheaven on the whitest cloud in the bluest sky,where good mice go to die,and where cats are not allowed.
In Mousehell bad mice are thrown to the cats to be
ripped apart forever and ever and ever.
Maybe they're just as well off not being able to think.
Posted by: yoyo | July 3, 2007 6:51 PM
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Not to be too technical but I googled Samhain and it starts November 1st. Close enough but technically October 31st is Halloween. Halloween be a more fitting day for communing with the dead, ya.
Blessed indeed.
We all miss our dead family and friends and my condolences to the author. We carry an image of them. I miss my older brother so much. He is a clear image in my mind; his voice, his smile, and his advise. In this way, he talks to me anytime and anywhere I want to hear from him. This is not a voice from the other world. For me to think so would be silly.
Posted by: Tim | July 3, 2007 6:15 PM
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"Diarmaid MacCulloch, in his masterful history of the Reformation, makes the comment that Protestantism created “a division between the dead and the living much more radical and impermeable than Catholicism.” I have now experienced the reality of this judgment."
And on Samhain night in Egypt.
Doesn't get much more fitting than that.
I'm sorry for your loss, author.
In all these problems 'defining' 'what happens to' the dead, we often give short shrift to the simple human fact that we, the living, miss them.
Blessed be.
Posted by: Paganplace | July 3, 2007 5:32 PM
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How do you know they are in heaven? Could it be? Nah? Couldn't possible be that. http://www.hoax-buster.org/sellyoursoul is a reasonable interpretation of the Bible that says they, according to your faith in God are with {the being Moses made the deal with} wherever His kingdom may be.
The notion of hell is completely removed from the funeral. Am I the only one to notice that? Yes, they argue over what to say and the notion of praying to or at least praying for the dead but how about the other place. No one ever mentions hell at the funeral.
Since we're discussing writers, how about "The Devil and Daniel Webster" as a topic? The Devil has a huge bank account and does as many good deeds as possible to fool us into thinking He is God?
We can be sure, saying Devil is God does not make Devil God but does make Devil happy. Can't help but notice that the big money goes to those who lead the multitudes. Would that be to heaven or might that be to hell?
Check out the pictures of the universe at the HB site and you can see where they went, according to the oldest religious authority there is. Earth, nebol birdge, next earth and hell below the bridge. Who said there is a demon on the nebol bridge? Why did he say there is a demon on the nebol bridge? Probably wasn't at a funeral he said it, or were they feeding their murder victims' bodies to the jackals?
Posted by: BGone | July 3, 2007 2:35 PM
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He may be inferring the chasm between the living and the dead is not necessarily mutually exclusive.
I imagine many heart attack survivors, such as myself, have experiences drastically different from the religion v. atheism linguistic debate. When you go through something like this, it's not something you necessarily feel eager to share. It'd be nice to hear more from these people, rather than the current selection whose primary concern is to hear themselves talk.
Posted by: john | July 2, 2007 10:11 PM
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'BETWEEN THE LIVING AND THE DEAD"! so that means you have the living and the dead scoped out - its only the between that is an unknown to you.
So i can be up to speed, and inasmuch as i only know about the living - tell me the dead part - because the only person i know that was dead and came back was jesus - but he did not appear to talk too much about what it was like to be dead.
so maybe you can tell us.
Posted by: Anonymous | June 28, 2007 12:19 PM
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Jim, thank you for such an inspirational and reflective word.
Yes, I very much believe in the intercessory power of those who have gone before us. Those who have loved us on earth certainly do not abandon us after death. For me, their power is intensified as they petition in person before God's throne.
I feel that our friends do just that for us still "fighting the good fight" here on earth.
God bless!
Gratefully,
Sister Patricia Gamgort
Posted by: Patricia | June 28, 2007 11:41 AM
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Rev. Anderson - What are you saying, really? I'm trying to understand. Are you saying you believe the nuns -that your friends are pulling strings in heaven to help their earthly cause? Do you think they do that better dead than alive? Was this all part of God's plan? Another sacrifice, a la Jesus on the cross? I know you didn't say any of this, but it sort of sounds that way, so that's why I'm asking.
Or are you saying that thinking they are influential in heaven helps you feel better about their sudden deaths? Or both? Or something else?
Posted by: E Favorite | June 28, 2007 10:31 AM
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