DYING AND DISSOLUTION

Frederick Buechner writes, “Dying and dissolution continues to strike fear in me. Death itself does not. Ten years ago if somebody had offered me a vigorous, healthy life that would never end, I would have said yes. Today I think I would say no. I love my life as much as I ever did and will cling on to it for as long as I can, but life without death has become as unthinkable to me as day without night or waking without sleep.”

Dissolution is an interesting term. It means the closing down or dismissal of something, especially the disintegration, decomposition: the dissolution of the flesh or formal death. Dissolution is the body returning to the dust from which it came. The Spirit lives on, but the body does not… for now. There will one day be a ‘bodily resurrection’ we read… but for now… its ashes to ashes.

I too cannot conceive of life without death… or death without dust.

“I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live.” Jesus