Memento mori.
This little nosegay of devotion is liberating to repeat when undergoing active humiliation. How liberating it is to say: “Memento mori, my death is coming. It will happen one day, and then after that, Judgement Day. That is what’s going to happen. That is the reality. That is what is on the way.” How true it is, and how much more honest it is to say: “I don’t know, I don’t know what I’m talking about.”, as Socrates so once wisely said: “I know that I know nothing.” Why would I know? Why would you ask me? You know all things, so enjoy your little victory. Your little moment of exaltation. It means nothing. Vanity, ashes, dust, and rotting flesh in the dirt fresh with worms is what it is, it is all that it is. My loss, your victory, we end up both in the ground in the end. It was, is, and always will be a waste of time, and time is all that we have. As Seneca would say: “Lay hold of today’s tasks and you will not depend so much upon tomorrow.” All of this is dust and means nothing. So go on, exalt yourself, sit on your high horse, the day of Judgement is coming. What use is it for me to waste my time in vanity, trying to be a “know it all”? For the sake of what? To prove for a moment, that I’m right? I am not right. I strive for wisdom with gritting teeth, and the pain in which my soul is wrangled and weeps for understanding; and met with silence and more obstacles, and more setbacks, and more headaches, and etc.
Deo gratias, Deo gratias, Deo gratias.
If humility, and recalling our mortality, brings one to the earth in abjection, in contrition for one’s sins, then it must be the very lens by which we are to hope for salvation, while having our faces firmly planted in the mud. The ground underneath our feet that will swallow us up one day.
Contrary to this, Pride seems to blind us, and we seem to forget that the end of our time here is coming, and it’s coming quickly. Question is, will we hear the word: “Depart”, or “Well done” at the end of it all?
Something tells me, that winning arguments and framing oneself as a ‘know-it-all’ is not going to help us then. But then again, what do I know? I am a rational heap of ashes, who wants nothing more than peace.
EAR