Maybe it's because I am a university professor, but I am drawn to the church fathers who were scholars, the early theologians and historians of the faith.
One of my favorite of these men is Bede -- now known as the Venereable Bede -- whose lasting contribution is his book The Histroy of the English Church and People. His pupil Cuthbert tells the story of Bede reciting the last sentence of his magnun opus from his deathbed, his young assistant recording the words moments before the great historian's death in 735 AD, on or about this date.
"There it is written," he said. "Good, it is finished. The time for my departure is near, and I long to be dissolved and be with Christ. My soul longs to see Christ my King in all his beauty."
Dissolved and be with Christ. What a beautiful picture of the end of life.
2 comments:
What a lovely quote!
And rather profound when you consider the multiple meanings of "dissolve:" to cause to disappear or vanish; to bring to an end; to cause to break down emotionally
t.s. elliott described the death of a Christian as "fading into Christ," which the terrific band The Choir turned in the song "Fade Into You" in the mid 1980s, still one of my favorite songs.
So this notion of "dissolving" hit on a notion that had been bubbling around my brain for 20+ years.
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