蜜芽传媒

A friend of mine, a Catholic priest, has been suffering for months with lung cancer. Last week I got the call: "Tim, he's started to die". I jumped into the car and arrived at his nursing home in time. Three of us sat by his bed praying, whispering in that soft tone one adopts around the gravely ill.

Professionals take it in their stride. A nurse came in, shook him roughly by the shoulder and shouted: "RAY, ARE YOU STILL WITH US?" A milky eye opened and he groaned. I think I heard: "Oh, go away."

I witnessed Ray receiving the anointing of the sick - commonly known towards the end of life as the last rites - by which the priest prays for the ill person and draws a cross on their forehead and hands with oil. It put me in mind of ancient Egypt, when priests anointed the body in preparation for a spiritual journey up the Nile. In Catholicism, too, the path from life to death is eased by ritual.

I went home to bed and received another message, at 7 in the morning, to say Ray had died. He was lucky. He had little pain, another friend was by his side. This is what most of us, I think, would want.

A sudden and violent death steals that from us. Today is the anniversary of the 7/7 suicide attacks that took the lives of 52 people. It was an appalling crime inspired by a pitiless version of faith I'll never understand. For added cruelty, some people only discovered that their relative had died when they heard their name read on the news.

Death is hard to fathom as it is. To lose someone because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time must be heartbreaking.

Many faiths teach that there is life after death, that there is the promise of judgement for the wicked and peace for the innocent. Some might dismiss this as a story told to bring comfort, the kind of thing we've moved on from in the age of science.

But science hasn't conquered death, and human beings will, I'm sure, continue to navigate that mystery with stories. Religious ritual articulates beliefs about God, but it also expresses the human condition. It takes the emotions of grief and love and channels them into words and action.

After I had left Ray, and gone to bed, I slept like a baby. Why? Because I felt everything that should be done had been done, and trusted that Ray would soon be with God. On this sad anniversary of 7/7, one hopes that those left behind have found peace and comfort, too.

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