There is a cheesy line that clergy use to define their jobs: we “hatch, match and dispatch”. It’s corny, but it is also true. One of the things that drew me to ministry was that it offered me the opportunity to be a part of people’s lives through every stage and milestone. As ministers/priests/rabbis/imams/pastors, we are invited to baptize newborns, marry couples, and officiate at the ceremonies that mark the end of life. What a privilege!! In my 31 years as a minister, I have done plenty of hatching, matching and dispatching.
This past Saturday, however, I did all three on the same day. That was a first.
At 10 am I baptized a seven-week-old baby; at 11 am I officiated at a funeral service for a woman who passed away at the age of 92. And at 4pm, I married a young couple in a beautiful outdoor setting, in front of their family and friends.
For me, it was a day like none other I have experienced. It represented the entirety of the journey of life, captured in real time. Within a six-hour time span, I saw life celebrated, honoured, and sanctified, in three different ways, accompanied by every emotion that could possibly be expressed. I don’t mind admitting that by the end of the day, I was as tired as I was reflective.
What struck me the most that day was a song. Just before the baptism, the parents of the newborn baby asked if they could play a song. They did. It was “The Circle of Life” from the movie The Lion King. When I left the church to drive to the cemetery, the tune was still running through my mind. Within the span of ten minutes, I went from standing in the presence of a brand-new life to standing in front of a gravestone that marked the end of life. The lyrics of the song kept playing in my mind:
It’s the circle of life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
‘Til we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the circle
The circle of life.
I began the funeral by referencing the song and noting that as much as we think of life as a straight line, it really isn’t. It’s a circle. We end at our beginning, by returning to the same source of love from which we came.
The Circle of Life plays itself out around us, in the changing of the seasons, the most beautiful of which we are seeing now, but it also plays itself out within us, as we move through the inner transitions and milestones that shape our experiences and define our legacies.
Days come and days go; most we will not remember, some we will never forget. Last Saturday will be a day that I know will stay with me. Six hours caught up in the circle of life!!
