Note to any rock stars who read Catholic blogs...

Courtesy of The Guardian

'David Bowie had everything. He was intelligent, imaginative, brave, charismatic, cool, sexy and truly inspirational both visually and musically. He created such staggeringly brilliant work, yes, but so much of it and it was so good. There are great people who make great work but who else has left a mark like his? No one like him.

I’m struck by how the whole country has been flung into mourning and shock. Shock, because someone who had already transcended into immortality could actually die. He was ours. Wonderfully eccentric in a way that only an Englishman could be.

Whatever journey his beautiful soul is now on, I hope he can somehow feel how much we all miss him.'

I think slowly but surely we are getting to the bottom of he Bowie bereavement. I can only presume this was what it was like when Elgar died.

I don't know at what point David Bowie 'transcended into immortality'. The first album, the second album, when he first got up on stage? His first cover of the NME? I suppose that it is possible that Ms Bush, having got famous herself (a clear sign of immortality), has, at some point, 'transcended into immortality' in that transition that takes place when, for years, perhaps decades, you can't get someone's song out of your head.

Note to any rock star readers: 

The truth is that you and Mr Bowie were immortal before you got famous and won acclaim for your musical gifts.

Every person has an immortal soul, our souls will be forever, either with God in eventual eternal happiness or separated from Him eternally. We cannot earn immortality, it is a gift from God. Each soul, which will one day be reunited with each body, will experience either eternal happiness or eternal punishment.

As for me, I'll pray for any dead pop star, but as well as praying for them, I might spend the next week praying for those musical artists who either have or will in the future die in utter obscurity having squandered their existence on smack, crack, pot, make up and sex with a multitude of sexual partners of both genders and who died not just unknown, but profoundly unhappy, because it was all in the pursuit of fulfilling the diabolically inspired desire to 'transcend into immortality' when immortality was already given.

No pop or rock star can change water into wine. No rock star can raise Lazarus from the dead. No pop icon can be your Lord and Saviour. In complete contrast to contemporary mythology, there is only one God, the Most Blessed and Undivided Trinity. A person who becomes famous, merited or unmerited does not become a king or a god, but simply a more widely heard of mortal. If there's one good thing about that, its that hopefully that means more people will pray for that person when they die.

However, each man and woman's soul is immortal, from the most unpopular and unloved beggar to the most acclaimed musician in the world and God's favour rests on the humble of this world. This is just one of the many truths that makes the Catholic Faith so beautiful, but a certain stumbling block to those impressed by the vanity and pride of this life and this world.

I do fear that those most deeply affected by the Bowie national trauma are not simply those who knew him and loved him, or didn't know him, but loved what little they knew of him, but instead those who, along with the unfortunates who 'make it' in the music industry, signed up to the post-50s musical polytheistic religion and worshipped him.

Alas, for that is what most rock stars seek. Unconditional adulation and adoration, seeking to replace their Creator in the minds and hearts of their 'fans'.

We Catholics worship the Immortal One who, for our sake, became a man and Who, despite suffering Death, conquered death, rose again and now reigns forever as King of Heaven and Earth.