Is the Angel of Death really that grim? To people in severe pain with no hope of recovery, or even a life of any quality, he can be welcome relief. To the elderly for whom life offers no more, he can be ‘an old friend’. Indeed, he is always nearby us all, as we step out into the road or climb upstairs, board a plane or even sit watching the television. We shall all meet him someday.
Around the world, beliefs about whether the spirit lives on vary widely and, therefore, so do the rituals at death. Burial may be in the hope of some form of resurrection whilst cremation is usually followed by the ashes being scattered on the land since (people say) “it doesn’t really matter what happens to the body’”as it is just the shell that housed the soul.
The ancient Egyptians built huge pyramids to house the greatest in the land or small tombs behind rocks for the less important. Pharaohs were buried with their wealth, and even food to help them on their onward journey. To these people, life after death was more important than the earthly life and they believed in an afterlife alongside their gods. Jewellery, weapons, and suchlike have also been found in the graves of very early Man.
Muslims bury their dead quickly, within three days, the body washed and wrapped in a white shroud. Islam teaches that Allah holds each soul accountable and will either reward them or punish them, although they will not be tested beyond their limits. So, the soul is taken by Azrael and two angels are sent by Allah to question the deceased: if they answer correctly a soul may sleep but, if not, it is tormented.
Hindus believe in the circle of life, death, reincarnation, and karma, whilst Jewish people say that how the individual lives their life is the most needful factor: a life lived in a praiseworthy fashion will prepare the soul for what comes next.
There are the strangest rituals, even ‘sky burials’ in which the body is left out on high on the side of a mountain for the vultures to eat. It is thought good if the body is totally eaten for, as unfussy as vulture are, if they leave parts, it is a sign of evil. Some cultural practices are very weird, such as the deceased being left outside their house with a cigarette in their mouth to those who, after several years, dig their relative’s body up to reclothe it and bury it again, hoping that their loved one feels near to them and not forgotten.
Throughout the world and the ages, there have always been strong and persistent beliefs in an afterlife where the soul will know that it is not forgotten and where some powerful force or Supreme Being will call the soul to account. So why are so many arguments and wars started in the name of religion, when it seems that our essential beliefs are not so very far apart at all?
And yet death remains a subject that many people find difficult to talk about or even consider. “
If we really think that home is elsewhere and that this life is a wandering to find home, why should we not look forward to the arrival?
C S Lewis
This really rings a bell for me personally. Some years ago, I became terribly depressed, I didn’t want to be here and I wanted ‘to go home’. My husband whisked me away to Portugal for a holiday, but it made little difference because in my head I couldn’t help constantly hearing the song Ship to Shore by Chris de Burgh. In the first verse, he sings, “This line is bad and fading… answer my call, send me a signal, a beacon to bring me home.” My home, I knew, was elsewhere. Fortunately, I recovered but I still know that death is not the end of life.
“I am prepared to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.
Winston Churchill
It seems that we all, like him, have a few serious questions to ask.
Come my friend, come with your scythe,
I do not fear you.
You seem to me an old companion,
just waiting in the wings of life.
I have done my singing and dancing,
my frenzied jig along life’s path.
I have been praised and scolded,
done things I shouldn’t have,
done things to be proud of,
I have been happy and lucky,
sung joyously and laughed.
I have thanked God for the world
in all its splendour
and for my existence in it.
I have regretted unhappiness, missed chances,
and sobbed bitterly in the dead of night,
raving at God for not helping when I was down
and too small for His attention.
I have tried to work out the meaning of it all.
So will I know when finally I accompany You to…
well, wherever it is that You will take me?
What fun, the mysteries of life!
Now I am tired,
bones ache and do not move at my command.
But eyes and ears will not miss the clamour of this life
for I am happy to go with you
to another place
where I can be young again.
So come, my friend, come with your scythe,
I do not fear you.
You seem to me an old companion,
just waiting in the wings of life.
Continued…
© Sandy Phillips, 2024
Sandy Phillips is the author of The Narrow Doorway,
telling the story of her extraordinary eight decades
of spiritual awareness and events.
Article published in More to Life – Edition 66
