MEMENTO MORI

Walking in the mall this holiday season we see the wall-to-wall people and think nothing of them.  But then it occurs to us that every single one of them is dead, or soon will be, as will we.  This is what the Latin phrase memento mori means, remember death.

Christian art is replete with images representing memento mori, among them sullen skulls, emptying hour glasses, and the skeletal grim reaper with his scythe ready to cut us down when our time is up. 

It is found in Buddhist art as well, especially in Tibet.  A Tibetan skull cup is a cup made of the oval upper section of a human cranium.  They are used in rituals and otherwise as symbolic art. 

Meantime, Tibetan flutes, drums, and rosaries made of human bones are not regarded as gruesome but rather, again, as symbols of the shortness of life.  Each time the beads of a bone rosary are touched, for instance, a prayer is said and merit is earned.

But what does it really mean to remember death.  What difference does it make whether we recall it or not?

Memento mori is to remind us that life has a purpose.  Ramakrishna stated this as discovering God.  The purpose of life is to find God.  If we do not seek God, our lives have been for nought, he said. 

And where are we to find God?  Jesus said that the kingdom of God is within.  But we must make an effort, have the will to find God.

Below the layers of self, we all feel this purpose.  It is simply a matter of yielding to it, surrendering to it, allowing it to be, permitting God to be, which is the real meaning of memento mori.