A Reading of "On Death"

From The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran

Then Almitra spoke, saying, We would ask now of Death.

And he said:

You would know the secret of death. But how shall you find it unless you seek it in the heart of life? The owl whose night-bound eyes are blind unto the day cannot unveil the mystery of light.

If you would indeed behold the spirit of death, open your heart wide unto the body of life.

For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

In depth of your hopes and desires lies your silent knowledge of the beyond;

And like seeds dreaming beneath the snow your heart dreams of spring.

Trust the dreams, for, in them is hidden the gate to eternity.

Your fear of death is but the trembling of the shepherd when he stands before the king whose hand is to be laid upon him in honour.

Is the shepherd not joyful beneath his trembling, that he shall wear the mark of the king?

Yet is he not more mindful of his trembling?

For what is it to die but to stand naked in the wind and to melt into the sun?

And what is it to cease breathing, but to free the breath from its restless tides, that it may rise and expand and seek God unencumbered?

Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain top, then you shall begin to climb.

And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.

© Arlene Harder, MA, MFT

EXCERPT FROM THE ART OF BLESSING THE DAY

[Note: The following was printed in the program and also read during the service, without this initial paragraph that was only in the program.]

Elijah James Henry, Eli to his friends, believed in making the world a better, more peaceful place and would have agreed with Nelson Mandela that "You can never have an impact on society if you have not changed yourself." He had done that. He had already shown a commitment to be responsible for his actions and would have also agreed with the sentiments of this excerpt from "Amidah: On our feet we speak to you," a poem by Marge Piercy from her book The Art of Blessing the Day.

Bless the gift of memory

that breaks unbidden, released

from a flower or a cup of tea

so the dead move like rain through the room

Bless what forces us to invent

goodness every morning and what never frees

us from the cost of knowledge, which is

to act on what we know again and again.

All living are one and holy, let us remember

as we eat, as we work, as we walk and drive.

All living are one and holy, we must make ourselves worthy.

We must act out justice and mercy and healing

as the sun rises and as the sun sets,

as the moon rises and the stars wheel above us,

we must repair goodness.

. . . Holy is the hand that works for peace and for justice,

holy is the mouth that speaks for goodness,

holy is the foot that walks toward mercy.