Defanging Death
Chances are you’ve had a dream like mine, one featuring a snake or other reptile. Snakes are one of the most common animals in dreams, counting among the top three to five dream animals. What do they mean? For me, defanging death!
Snakes in dreams
There was a snake in the dream, a small one that I am handling. I’m trying to teach the snake not to bite. The snake likes me and wants to be with me but as the snake grows, I fear for my safety and the safety of those around me lest the deadly venom kills me and all I love.
This was not a dream I could easily shake. I found myself looking online for the meaning behind the dream. Snakes in dreams can be about transformation. Just as snakes shed their skins, we shed parts of our life. I found this interesting, though it didn’t speak to me.
I carried it with me as I went for my weekly hour of quiet adoration. As I read through my book of reflections, I was struck by one on destroying death. The post ended with this: “The only way to de-fang death is to believe in and live totally for Jesus.” Wow, defanging death. Did the writer know about my dream? Clearly, this was what my dream was about.
Death In Ecclesiastes
Death, according to the writer of Ecclesiastes, almost ruins life. It has a deadly sting. It is like going home, a snapped cord, a broken bowl, a shattered pitcher, a pulley fallen into a well, and dust returning to earth.
“Remember him—before the silver cord is severed, and the golden bowl is broken; before the pitcher is shattered at the spring, and the wheel broken at the well, and the dust returns to the ground it came from, and the spirit returns to God who gave it.” (Eccl. 12:6-7)
As one commentary states: “There will come a day when the pitcher shall be taken to the fountain for the last time and be broken as in the very act of drawing water, when the wheel that guides the current of the blood “which is the life” shall turn for the last time on its axis.” (Bible Hub Commentary)
Sister Death
Frances of Assisi, in his Canticle of the Sun, speaks of sister death.
“All praise be yours, my Lord, through Sister Death,
From whose embrace no mortal can escape.
Woe to those who die in mortal sin!
Happy those She finds doing your will!
The second death can do no harm to them.
Praise and bless my Lord, and give him thanks,
And serve him with great humility.”
What did Frances mean by sister death? Jack Wintz, OFM, in his blog post, St. Francis and His Canticle of the Creatures | Franciscan Media, states:
“Throughout this canticle, we have seen how Francis saw God’s goodness, radiance and beauty in all creatures. He saw them indeed as benevolent friends, as brothers and sisters—as family. And now even the reality of death itself becomes “Sister Death” for Francis, and thus takes on friendly and even “sisterly” aspects. For who of us is afraid of our sister? Indeed, under usual circumstances we are not afraid of our sister. And so, neither does Francis see this sister as threatening to him. In fact, according to Thomas of Celano, the first biographer of the saint, Francis went “joyfully to meet [death]” and “invited it to make its lodging with him. ‘Welcome,’ he said, ‘my sister death!’”
You might say that Frances, in this canticle, was defanging death.
New Phase
As a minister I’m someone who is no stranger to death. I’ve walked along families during the darkest of times, when dealing with the tragic loss of a mother of three from a car accident, the suicide of a father of two, and death far too soon from cancer of loved ones. I’ve also taught courses on death and dying and grief on the undergraduate and graduate level, and wrote books on this (Walking with Families through the Dying Process and Walking with Families through Grief).
You might say I’m an expert on the topic, or Dr. Death. But the recent loss of my mother has put me into a new phase.
More and more, death is becoming a constant companion as friends around my age are either confronting their own end or that of their friends and family. Recently a friend lost her husband and then her son within a week of each other.
I’m reminded of comments by residents at the retirement community I had served at, talking about the number of funerals they have been attending and saying how they have more friends in the next life than in this one. I’m not there yet but those days appear to be approaching far too fast. But I’m also reminded how for many, death was not seen as the enemy, but a friend, like Frances’ sister death.
Defanging Death
In the face of this, I am reminded, “Death where is thy sting?” (1 Cor. 15:55). Jesus, through his death and resurrection, has defanged death for all time. And therein lies hope.
The writer of Ecclesiastes wrote during a time before the coming of Christ. A reason for the pessimism that is prevalent in the book. But for those of us who believe, we have hope in the resurrection. This takes the sting out of death. Jesus continues defanging death today, in our own life, in this modern society.
Where do you find hope to continue in the face of death? How might you join me in defanging death?
Are you or your loved ones confronting death and the grief that accompanies loss? My books Walking with Families through the Dying Process and Walking with Families through Grief offer helpful insights as you walk through this time of life. Available in paperback through Amazon and in eversion through Amazon and other estores.
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