The Book of Joy

to be more fully alive. I worked on a book many years ago with a
physician who cared for seriously ill and dying patients. He made a
powerful distinction between healing and curing: Curing involves the
resolution of the illness but was not always possible. Healing, he said,
was coming to wholeness and could happen whether or not the illness was
curable.
The Archbishop explained how he was planning to be cremated, to
conserve space, and wanted a simple funeral to encourage others in his
country to avoid the expensive caskets and ceremonies that are
traditional. Even in death, moral leaders teach by their choices. Then the
Archbishop looked at me, and said with a commonsense finality, “Death
is a fact of life. You are going to die.” The Archbishop continued, “It’s
actually a wonderful thing to do what they call a living will, where you
are giving instructions for when the end comes. It’s not being morbid.
You’re saying this is a fact of life. I’ve conducted a number of funerals
myself, and I have come to the stage where I’m saying, ‘By the way, this
is where you are going. That could so easily be you now.’ Yes, of course,
there is a kind of nostalgia for the things that you have had that you will
miss. I will miss my family. I will miss the person who has been my
partner for these sixty years. There are many things that I will miss. But
in this Christian tradition to which I belong, I will be entering into a
fuller life.
“It is wonderful. I mean, imagine if we didn’t die. Our poor world
would not be able to carry the burden. It’s not able to carry the burden of
seven billion as it is. I mean, I have had a beginning, I’ve had a middle,
and I’ll have an end. There is a lovely symmetry about it. Symmetry.” He
laughed as he lingered over the word and repeated it.
“If we didn’t die, imagine the number of people that would be in the
world now. I hope that the things I believe about heaven are really true:
that I will meet my loved ones, my parents, my older brother, whom I
didn’t know because he died in infancy. I will meet many wonderful
stalwarts. I want to meet St. Augustine. I want to meet St. Thomas
Aquinas and people who have taught us so much about praying.
“Because God is God, because God is infinite, because none of us who