Incline Our Hearts
Keep Death Daily Before Your Eyes
This week, I watched an extraordinary interview on YouTube by Peter Robinson with Ben Sasse (you can watch it below) It's not short, but it is well worth your time. Sasse has had a varied background: a doctorate in History from Yale, two-time university president, business consultant, and Republican Senator from Nebraska. He is a constitutional conservative, who made enemies in the MAGA right as the Republican Party changed. In December, Sasse, just 53 years old, learned that he had terminal pancreatic cancer that had spread throughout his body. Although he is in a clinical trial at MD Anderson, he has been told he likely has less than a year to live.
In recent weeks, Sasse has been on a kind of farewell tour, giving interviews, and writing columns. He hopes to launch a podcast called "Not Dead Yet," named after the famous Monty Python skit. What fascinated me most about his interview with Robinson was the humanity of it. He wishes he had spent more time with his wife and three children when he was focused on work. He jokes about the morphine he is taking for pain making him maybe too honest. He delivers candid critiques, as both historian and former senator, about what is happening to our democracy, especially in the Senate.
And he leans into his faith. Dwelling on the Biblical phrase from Ephesians "redeem the time," he speaks movingly about using what time he has on earth for God's purposes, and his resurrection hope in Christ. Watching the interview, I thought of Saint Benedict's advice in his Rule to the monks: "keep death daily before your eyes." This teaching is not meant to be morbid or fearful, but to focus us with bracing clarity and humility on what matters most: our loved ones, and, above all, the sacred call to use our limited mortal lives to die to self and grow in Christ Jesus, to love God and our neighbor, by grace. An invitation to lift our eyes from the fog of selfish deception, distraction, anxiety, and fear, and see clearly the path where our Savior leads.
Lent began with just such a reminder: "remember that you are dust, and to dust you shall return." What will we do with this precious gift we have been given?
