Читать книгу Reconnect - David Sherbino - Страница 22

Developing the discipline of silence and solitude as a mean of preparation for dying seems rather strange if not morbid. Yet dying, a reality that will happen to all of us, is something we need to face.

It is fascinating to understand that when people are dying they desire to have others with them, they do not want to go through the experience alone. Part of this can be explained by the fact we develop emotional bonds with people we love. They have become a part of our life and dying means there will be a separation of theses relationships. So at the time of death many experience ‘separation anxiety’. They are afraid to let go, because they do not know what life will be like without the other.

I was with my youngest brother when he died. Quite suddenly he became very ill and was taken to the critical care unit at the local hospital. In the middle of the night I was called by the hospital staff to come and be with him because he had taken a turn for the worse and was not expected to live through the night. In that hospital room my parents, my wife and I gathered to be with him as he was dying. He was surrounded by people who loved and cared for him. We talked to him, we prayed with him and we held his hand. In that moment I wondered ‘what is it like to die’? Regardless of the fact that he was surrounded by those who loved and cared for him, he still had to die by himself. What was he thinking? What was he feeling? What was this dying experience like?

As Christians we are given the promise of Jesus ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you”.

It suddenly became evident that as I learned to experience, and not just theorize about the presence of Christ in my life, I would be able to face my own dying without anxiety and fear because I would know the awareness of Christ’s presence in my day to day living. I would be able to identify with the Psalmist who said ‘Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for you are with me’. Ps.23:4.

There are different places in life where we are forced to be alone. It may be through sickness, times of forced confinement, and even death. All of these are places where no one else can enter with us. How we cope in these situations will depend upon our preparation. Learning the discipline of silence and solitude is part of that preparation.