by Rebecca Jordan Heys | You might wonder why the title of this meditation is “Beautiful Death.” The Bible affirms life, so how could any death be considered beautiful? But, in a way, this title is similar to the name “Good Friday,” which we use to refer to the day of Jesus’ death. In some ways that day was not good...
why is religious Christmas imagery all so joyful and pleasant? where is the inherent horror of the birth of Christ? A mother is handed her newborn child, wailing and innocent. Her hands come away sticky. Red. Simply by giving her son life she has already killed him. He is doomed from the beginning. Her love will not save him from suffering. Because the thing cradled in her arms is not a baby, it is a sacrifice: born amongst the other bleating animals whose blood will one day be spilled in the name of what demands it. the night is silent with anticipation. Mary, did you know? That your womb was also a grave?
A Place Of Beautiful Death
“The towering cliff adjacent to the orphanage had earned a deadly reputation for inspiring the false hope of a final escape by those desperate enough to try. The weather- and sea-beaten boulders at the cliff’s bottom were decorated with the disintegrated… and disintegrating… remains of broken young bodies. Brains had been scattered and bones shattered as if the…