Dr Kania explores the ever-fascinating story of the sinking of the Titanic in search of answers to some questions that perhaps lie deeper than where the Titanic ended up. What is the role of Providence in our lives? What are the ultimately important standards by which we measure the value of our lives?

"God himself could not sink this ship!"…

Steaming through the icy waters of the Atlantic Ocean, RMS Titanic, bore more than the 2,223 lives that sailed aboard her on her fateful voyage. An even darker shadow was the mind-set of her Captain at the helm, Edward John Smith (1850-1912), who was firmly of the belief of ships such as the Titanic that: "I cannot imagine any condition which would cause a ship to founder. I cannot conceive of any vital disaster happening to this vessel. Modern shipbuilding has gone beyond that."

Onward she skated across the smooth seas, onward toward her rendezvous with disaster and legend. Within a few short hours on the morning of April the 15th, 1912, 1522 children, women and mostly men, would lose their lives, doing the suffering and dying all in the name of man's over-confidence and blind-ambition. What excuse could there have been for excessive speed in icy conditions, or what adequate reason given that there were not enough life-boats for every person to be saved, or for the failure of the crew to heed warnings signalled to her by other vessels in the area? How could an unsinkable boat follow the same fate of innumerable reed rafts and wooden barques throughout history — this was a vessel made of iron and powered by steam! Ironically a survivor, Mrs. Sylvia Caldwell (1889-1965) recalled, hearing a crew member telling a passenger as she had boarded Titanic: "God himself could not sink this ship!"

Watched by dumbstruck survivors huddled together on the life-boats, a terrible caravan of bodies was pulled under water, following the vessel as she sank to the ocean bottom, and with it went the remnants of their shattered dreams and hopes of new beginnings in a new country, or shattered visions of family reunions — all submerged with the notion of man's unsinkable creation. All this humanity, like mere specks sucked down a bath's drain-pipe. Gold, silver and velvet, pearls and ermine, all became decor for thousands of deep-sea fish. Titles, deeds and stock market shares all became worthless with every metre they descended under the ocean deep. Make-up and mascara, silk stockings and provocative lingerie, in an instant went from tools to allure red-blooded men, to being burial garb. A 20th century Tower of Babel had been built, and had fallen as did the original template, but this time not with a thud, but with a massive groan, a thunderous splash and then — nothing, just the sound of survivors coughing, and the silent outpouring of mist coming from their mouths.

Cover of a 1952 edition of The Rubaiyat of Omar Kayaam

The Rubaiyat of Omar Kayaam…

There at the bottom of the Atlantic, off the coast of Newfoundland, RMS Titanic slowly disintegrates. Little known by many people is that to this day, locked away in a safe on-board the Titanic, is an ancient manuscript which over the Ages had had innumerable eyes pouring over it, seeking wisdom; as well as countless minds seeking to attempt to dissect its numerous veils of meaning. The eyes of Arabs, the eyes of the Mongol, the eyes of Europeans, the eyes of Africans, had all at some stage gazed upon her wonderful pages. Historically one of the most famous texts ever written by the hand of one man, it now lies at the bottom of the ocean, forever entombed under kilometres of salt water. The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayaam, a jewel in the crown in man's search for knowledge, is ironically victim to one of man's greatest acts of folly; the belief of invincibility.

The sinking of the Titanic has not lost its effect on the human psyche despite the accident occurring nearly a century ago. The imagination is still captivated by stories of survival and of the mechanics of the disaster. One possible reason why the Titanic tragedy has left its indelible mark is that, as with certain media personalities when they suddenly die, the occurrence was so unexpected. Fame and scientific prowess seem to make man believe that the object of our affections are impervious to harm, danger and death, only to have such tragic incidents shake us out of our childish dreams. We then briefly enter the world of reality and wisdom, only to cyclically return to a life of illusion — duped into the belief that death is the domain for the elderly and ill, and that somehow 'under our own steam' we can conquer mortality.

The Gospel of Saint Luke has Christ teach an important lesson about a wealthy farmer, who, in the midst of abundant harvest, decides to expand his business in order to profit from even more bounteous times ahead. The only problem with his planning comes when God issues him the news: "Fool! This very night the demand will be made for your soul; and this hoard of yours, whose will it be then?" (Luke 12: 20, The New Jerusalem Bible) The powerful meaning of this parable is qualified at a point later on in this chapter, when Christ comments: "You may be quite sure of this, that if the householder had known at what time the burglar would come, he would not have let anyone break through the wall of his house. You too must stand ready, because the Son of man is coming at an hour you do not expect". (Luke 12: 39 – 40, The New Jerusalem Bible)

St. John Chrysostom stresses the same point when in a sermon he writes:

"A man decides to build a house. He digs down into the earth until he reaches solid rock, and then lays the foundations. He collects great lumps of stone, hews them into regular shapes, and puts them one on top of the other to make walls. He goes into the forest to chop down trees, which he saws into rafters for the roof. He digs out clay, and bakes it into tiles to put on the roof. At last his work is complete. He stands back and admires his achievement. 'nothing can destroy such a strong building,' he says to himself; 'my house will last forever.' Certainly such a man is skilled with his hands; but he is totally unskilled with his soul. Even if his house were to last forever, it is utterly irrelevant to him. He may be struck down by an accident or a disease within a few days. He may survive his full span, but as the breath leaves his body, his house will count for nothing. He might just as well have built himself a shelter from sticks and mud and used the time to concentrate on the salvation of his own soul". (Chrysostom, 1996, p. 32)

The intention of Christ's teaching and Chrysostom's sermon is not one that should freeze us with so great a fear that we now lack the motivation of getting out of bed in the morning. Christ does not desire to stifle ambition, nor quash dreams, nor destroy goals — Christ simply wants the individual to understand that everything in human life is precariously finite; life itself relies on the Providence of God. Thus the compass point by which we steer our lives should be taken from the core of our healthy relationship with God — for all else is essentially meaningless; for God is the only being who has meaning, as all else is created. An individual may win a swimming gold medal, be a champion cricketer, paint outstanding portraits, or sing like a nightingale, but if God is not a part of their lives — what will the Creator, who has far greater power than any of these individuals say to them when they bring forward an account of their lives, without Him? Far better, as Chrysostom intimates, is it to be a simple individual without any other aspect to your life than to be remembered for your deep love of God and your love of neighbour as yourself.

As frightening as the reality is — we are all mortal, and we all live from day-to-day in the knowledge that each day could be our last. In short, the first day of our life, is the beginning of our journey to death. Such knowledge should not make living untenable — it should make it all the more real. Mistakes such as that which led to the Titanic's demise would never have occurred had those in charge placed the nature of mortality ahead of the illusion of invincibility. If those at the helm of the vessel were realists they would never have wished to have taken so great a risk on behalf of the passengers, by placing safety as a lower priority to ambition. The disaster may also have never occurred had the prize of the goal not obscured each step of the journey that needed to be taken and negotiated.

Original cover design of Houghton Mifflin edition (Run your mouse over the image to zoom it to larger size)

Each of us should respect the moment we have in this world, and see to it that that moment is Godly — not Godly in a neurotic and servile sense, but Godly inasmuch as to ensure that no action we leave behind in this world, is one that has been carried out without knowing the full value of the gift of life that God has given for us to rejoice in. To understand the importance of the moment — we must first comprehend the brevity and sanctity of life and the utter reliance we have on the Providence of God. Life is indeed short, life is indeed a treasure, and as the passage of Khayaam tells us from copies made from the now forever sealed manuscript: "Don't seek to recall yesterday that is past/Nor repine for tomorrow which has yet to come/Don't build your hopes on the past or the future/Be happy now and don't live on wind". (Khayaam, 1986, Rubaiyat 215)

Image Credits: Click on the images for the original source. The photo of the model of the sinking of the Titanic used in the headline animation was sourced from: www.encyclopedia-titanica.org

©2008 Dr Andrew Thomas Kania

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