Memento Mori
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“Ivan Ilych saw that he was dying, and he was in continual despair.? In the depth of his heart he knew he was dying, but not only was he not accustomed to the thought, he simply did not and could not grasp it.? The syllogism he had learnt from Kiesewetter’s Logic: “Caius is a man, men are mortal, therefore Caius is mortal,” had always seemed to him correct as applied to Caius, but certainly not as applied to himself. That Caius — man in the abstract — was mortal, was perfectly correct, but he was not Caius, not an abstract man, but a creature quite, quite separate from all others. He had been little Vanya, with a mamma and a papa, with Mitya and Volodya, with the toys, a coachman and a nurse, afterwards with Katenka and will all the joys, griefs, and delights of childhood, boyhood, and youth. What did Caius know of the smell of that striped leather ball Vanya had been so fond of? Had Caius kissed his mother’s hand like that, and did the silk of her dress rustle so for Caius? Had he rioted like that at school when the pastry was bad? Had Caius been in love like that? Could Caius preside at a session as he did? “Caius really was mortal, and it was right for him to die; but for me, little Vanya, Ivan Ilych, with all my thoughts and emotions, it’s altogether a different matter. It cannot be that I ought to die. That would be too terrible.”? ? ?
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Such was his feeling.”? (The Death of Ivan Ilych)
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Tolstoy’s Death of Ivan Ilych is the most poignant and confronting? through death? in fiction? – and the most confronting.? I’m reading this passage to our congregation tonight in light of our teaching session on Hebrews 2:5-18, based around vv14-15
Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.
What does it look like to not fear death? Let me put it in a negative light first. Islamofascist terrorists have often boasted that they cannot lose because, unlike the enemy, they do not fear death.? Suicide bombings are far harder to control than regular western terrorism because groups such as the IRA and ETA in Spain would not? detonate a car bomb with themselves inside, or strap a bomb to their bodies and kill themselves.? The rules of terrorist engagement in the West have changed because of the fundamentally different worldview of those who are engaging in it.
What does it look like not to fear death?? How about we put it in a positive light?? How radical would it look like to be a community that? does not fear death?? How would? it change us to be gripped by the fact that because Jesus has? tasted death for us? we don’t? have to succumb to the? despair, or to the hedonist “shop till you drop”.? Such a community would have the same level of impact on the West as the terrorists, only in the polar opposite direction.
BTW – the complete novella The Death of Ivan Ilych is available free to read on-screen? at http://www.classicallibrary.org/tolstoy/ivan/
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