College Considers Death with St. Thomas More | Thomas More College

College Considers Death
with St. Thomas More

by Patrick Kuplack, ’21

Last Friday afternoon the College assembled for its first Traditio of the spring semester. Traditio days at Thomas More are hosted three times a semester.  The student body takes a rest from the usual Friday class schedule to consider a great work of literature, an historical figure or event, or work of art in greater depth than the Humanities curriculum allows.  Come afternoon, fitted in Sunday best for the occasion, students and faculty alike attend one or two sessions combining lectures, a panel discussion, and conversation.

The February Traditio is always dedicated to an examination of a work by our patron, St. Thomas More. For this Traditio, two of St. Thomas More’s writings were set before the students and faculty: The Four Last Things, penned around 1522 while More was at the height of his career and still in the good graces of the king Henry VIII, and selections from the Tower Writings, written after More was imprisoned by the same king. More’s key message in these pieces echoes that of the Book of Sirach: “Remember the last things and you will never sin.” It is a fitting topic to prepare one for Lent. More details the importance of calling death to mind, and even of imagining one’s own death. The faculty panel discussing the respective writings consisted of President William Fahey, Dean Jay Thompson, Dr. Sara Kitzinger, and Dr. Patrick Powers.

After all were assembled and faculty members seated at a table before the expectant gaze of the community, Dr. Fahey opened with Thomas More’s famous prayer written before his execution. He then provided historical context for these writings of Thomas More, expounding upon the various positions which More held in England under Henry VIII. Dr. Fahey closed by emphasizing More’s use of the phrase “remembrance of death,” and the role of the King’s Remembrancer, an official position in the English government since medieval times. 

Mr. Thompson followed up with comments on how we cannot remember something, like our own death, which we have never actually experienced, and that it potentially can be dangerous to imagine in detail such a critical event in our lives. Professor Thompson supported his position by pointing out that Sacred Scripture does not delve into the minutiae of death, but rather refers to more general considerations. Dr. Powers remarked that remembering your death spurs you on to philosophy, as contemplating the end directs one to know how to get there correctly. And Dr. Sara Kitzinger concluded the general faculty considerations by following More’s analogy of life as a sickness, pointing out that More was participating in a long-established philosophical conversation about the necessity and imperfection of the body in order to demonstrate to the Christian how natural and near death in fact is.

The ensuing conversation engaged in by the professors centered around the relative merits of vividly imagining one’s own death.  Dean Thompson suggested that detailing unforeseeable events can be distracting and dangerous for the soul, while Dr. Fahey posited that the use of imagination, in this case, could be quite beneficial in the spiritual life.  Professor John McCarthy pointed to the spiritual writings of St. Ignatius of Loyola and St. Francis de Sales as examples of other Catholic spiritual writers who encourage us to meditate on images of death. Freshman Paul Harty noted that the conversation was rather animated and seemed to suggest disagreement: “I did not realize until later when I spoke with others that Dr. Fahey and Mr. Thompson were not in contradiction with each other.” Both of them were speaking of different stages of the spiritual life, the one being the completion of the other: Fahey about the beginning and most widely practiced phase, using intense images, and Thompson about the more perfect phase, nearly void of images and primarily seeking union of the will with God. 

The conversation continued well after the panel session concluded, as the dinner table talk turned repeatedly to the thoughts and words of our great patron. Mr. Harty notes that “it was beautiful to see a less known side of Thomas More. You could tell it was born from his life of prayer.  It was not More simply telling us what to do, but saying ‘this is what I do.’” Junior Declan McArdle agrees. “This Traditio was a great preparation for Lent,” he says.  “Thinking about death in a realistic, non-morbid way will help us live better and prepare for death.”

 

For further reading:

Academic Life

Traditio: Discussing the Letters of Our Patron

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