There used to be this natural law where people were born, and then people died. This is still in effect, however, it has been amended. It now reads, “People are born, and then they die. Those who die in Christ live again.” Really, if you think about it, Death is no longer Death but merely the transition into a new kind of life, a new way of living and being. For the believer in Christ, the follower of the Way and the Truth, there is a Life in which Death is defeated. This isn’t the sort of “undeath” that you see in zombie movies, but a glorified and full life as it was always meant to be.
As Christians, especially as Catholic Christians, we are called not only to believe in the resurrection of the body, not only called to proclaim it in our Creed, but I would say we are also called… to apply it. Absorb it. Live it and breathe it. Our Creed says, “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.”
(From the Catechism)
989 We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day.(John 6:39-40) Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity:
“If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you.”(Rom 8:11)
990 The term “flesh” refers to man in his state of weakness and mortality.(Gen. 6:3, Ps. 56:5, Isa. 40:6) The “resurrection of the flesh” (the literal formulation of the Apostles’ Creed) means not only that the immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our “mortal body” will come to life again.(Rom 8:11)
991 Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of the Christian faith from its beginnings. “The confidence of Christians is the resurrection of the dead; believing this we live.”(Tertullian, De Res. 1, 1: PL 2, 841)
“How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. . . . But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.”(1 Cor 15:12-14)
The reason I bring this subject up is because all of us will encounter death; many of us have and many of us might currently be face to face with it. But, because of God’s love for us, we faithful need no longer fear death, nor hate it, nor fight it. Death is no longer an end, but a beginning, and as I come into a greater strength and understanding of the promise we have in the resurrection, I find myself to be much more courageous and joyful. I find too that as I look ahead to the funerals I might witness in the future of people close to me, or distant, I look upon them almost as a bittersweet “so long for now” as opposed to a final “goodbye.”
Because we are promised the resurrection, and because God Himself has promised it, we no longer need to despair over death, because it is through death in Christ that we are freed forever from sin and enter into the presence of God as we were always meant to.
Remember the parable of the grain of wheat? Unless it falls and dies (ceasing to be a seed), it will bear no fruit. We are that seed, and unless we plant ourselves in Christ and receive our nourishment from the Holy Spirit, we will remain a seed and become nothing. But, if we die, we will blossom into something beautiful and perfect, made so by God.
So, all those who suffer despair, fear, agony, uncertainty, anger, or any other suffering in the face of death, be not afraid, for all theses things are not needed. Yes, you will mourn, and some of these things will come, but let them pass. Offer them to God; He will take them away from you and replace it with a reminder-
God is no stranger to Death. He watched, weeping, as Adam and Eve left Eden. He watched as they died. He has watched as all men and women from the beginning until today lived and died, some in cruel and evil ways.
God died.
GOD DIED.
God, the eternal, all powerful, all loving, merciful, wise, immortal and invincible died. He shed His divinity and entered into our humanity to share it, to sanctify it, to save it. He tasted death in the most horrible fashion and defeated it from the inside out. And, instead of rising on the third day and bidding us farewell, God promised to share that gift with us and it was the way He lived, the way He was human, the Way of Jesus Christ, that shows us how we, too, can join in that amazing victory.
For our flesh is enslaved to sin, and once we shed our flesh in death, we are freed from that slavery. Once freed, we can be fully restored to what we were meant to be in the beginning- beings of flesh and spirit, united completely with God, dwelling with Him and all the angels of Heaven. But we will only be restored if we have come to the Father through the Son, and it is by the Holy Spirit that we know Jesus.
In every death, then, I pray that we all see it not as an end, but the next step of a glorious journey. If we live in the constant hope of the resurrection, death is nothing but a cause for rejoicing, for another person has entered into the presense of God! Live joyfully, and always remember that as Christ is risen, so have we been promised by Him to rise again to new life, for He came that we might have life and live it more abundantly.
I hope this blog brings consolation and knowledge to all you who need it, and please continue to ask any questions you have about our Catholic faith.
(FOR FURTHER THOUGHTS on the resurrection, etc. please feel free to reread my blogs starting at February 7th, 2007.)
