There they lie, and if not in the Abbey, the chances are, then most surely somewhere else, we too will someday lie because just as they all came to face at last that eloquent, just, and mightie foe, so we also will come to face him, and in the meantime—although we have much to rejoice in and much to hold fast to and many days, we hope, still left ahead of us to live—we must somehow come to terms with the darkness not just of death but also of life. And that is of course the darkness that our two texts speak to and confront us with.
