Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep

We’ve all heard the expressions: “He’s a poor soul.”…“She has soulful eyes.”… “Songs to soothe the soul”….“Soul music”…“Dark night of the soul”…“Soul sister”…“He’s a tortured soul.”…”Lost souls.”  The word “soul” and the phrases in which it is used conjure up all sorts of images.

Then there is: “Now I lay me done to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.”  What do we pray the Lord to keep and then take?  This popular prayer makes it seem that our soul is separate from God who will take it when we die.  

This “taking” prompts us to ask: “What is a soul?  Is our soul separate from God?”   And, referring to our first reading, what happens to “unjust” souls?   According to the Book of Wisdom, “The souls of the just are in the hand of God…”   Do the “unjust” slip and flow though God’s open “fingers?”

According to author and Franciscan priest, Father Richard Rohr, “Your soul is who you are in God and who God is in you (my emphasis).  You can never really lose your soul; you can only fail to realize it, which is indeed the greatest of losses: to have it but not have it.”  I like his view because it confirms what we already should know: we don’t lose our soul; we might “misplace” it, but it’s always there entwined with God as the Holy Spirit.  Unfortunately, for many of us and at many times during our lives, we just simply forget who we are: the image of God who is in us.  For us Catholics that “within-ness” is made known to us through our wonderful sacraments of Baptism and Confirmation. 

The so-called “unjust” that are sometimes all of us, walk in the valley of darkness, according to our responsorial psalm, but they (we) fear no evil for the Lord is with them (us).  In other words, God is with us at all times guiding and giving courage.  There are no open fingers through which we fall.  God’s “hand” is cupped, and we are in it – together.   

Let’s consider the greatest commandment: “Love God with all your mind, heart, and soul.”  This is a command many of us refuse to heed, and that’s okay.  Many of us are stubborn.  And, God within us surely appreciates this human trait.  Perhaps our stubbornness is a reflection of God’s stubbornness in refusing to abandon us when to many of us the greatest commandment is just an after-thought.

 It’s comforting to know that God is within us because God is not separated from our soul.  God doesn’t separate from our soul when we die and then take our soul.  When we die, we leave our physical bodies in companionship with God.  We don’t leave alone, and that’s comforting! 

“Now I lay me done to sleep.  I pray the Lord my soul to keep.  If I should die before I wake, I leave with the love of the Lord always there for my sake.”
   
Deacon David Pierce