A Happy Death

Each year on this, his feast day, I write a short article about Saint Thomas Becket. Having the birth name “Thomas”, I take Becket and Aquinas as patrons.

Previous articles on Saint Thomas Becket:

2012: Becket and Chaucer
(A meditation on pilgrimage)

2011: Saint Thomas Becket
(G.K. Chesterton on Becket’s martyrdom)

2010: Becket
(Becket, More, and Henry VIII (that jerk))

2009: Saint Thomas Becket
(Becket’s martrydom, an eyewitness account)

Last year, for some reason, I failed to post anything. Perhaps I was still digesting the idea of pilgrimage from the year before. Perhaps I just had nothing new to say.

This year, I’d like to call your attention to a short biography, rather too long to be a sketch and too short to be comprehensive: St. Thomas Becket.

In particular, read the account of his martyrdom and what transpired after. The denouement:

Within three years of his death the archbishop had been canonized as a martyr. Though far from a faultless character, Thomas Becket, when his time of testing came, had the courage to lay down his life to defend the ancient rights of the Church against an aggressive state. The discovery of his hairshirt and other evidences of austerity, and the many miracles which were reported at his tomb, increased the veneration in which he was held.

Thomas’ life was far from exemplary, and yet in the end he had what every Christian should pray for: the grace of a happy death.

It’s something worth contemplating today. No one is past redemption. God loves every human being and desires them to attain heaven.

All we have to do is ask.

Pray for a happy death.

Grant, we beseech Thee, O Lord,
that in the hour of our death
we may be refreshed by Thy holy Sacraments
and delivered from all guilt,
and so deserve to be received with joy
into the arms of Thy mercy.
Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Saint Thomas Becket, pray for us.