Friday's Faith - Requiem: Eric Wolterstorff in Memoriam - Part I: The Awfulness of Death

Friday's Faith

Requiem: Eric Wolterstorff in Memoriam

Part I:

The Awfulness of Death

In honor of their son Eric, Claire and Nicholas Wolterstorff commissioned composer Cary Ratcliff to write a requiem, to a text which they composed mainly from biblical passages. The first performance of Requiem: Eric Wolterstorff in Memoriam was given on May 18, 1986 in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Following is the text. Part I expresses the awfulness of Death.

Part I:

Truly terrible is the mystery of death. 

I lament at the sight of the beauty 

created for us in the image of God 

which lies now in the grave 

without shape, without glory, without 

consideration. 

What is this mystery that surrounds us? 

Why are we delivered up to decay? 

Why are we bound to death? 

~John of Damascus

There is hope for a tree if it be cut down, 

that it will sprout again

and its shoots will not cease. 

But we die and disappear. 

We breathe our last, and where are we?

~Job 14

Never again do we return home; 

our dwelling place knows us no more. 

~Job 7

Picture, Ashes, thanks to Google Images
Requiem, from Lament for a Son ~Nicholas Wolterstorff (1987)