|
71. THE
LAST ENEMY
1. Death is the most serious threat to the human anxiety to live, “the worst bad luck” (Lorca), the last enemy (1Co 15,26) the utmost enigma of human life (GS18). Death confuses, scares, scandalizes. It questions the sense of life and also the sense of God. Anyhow, questions arise: Will there be anything afterwards? Are we sentenced to die? Is there any hope? What does the Gospel announce? How does Jesus confront his own death? 2. In Jesus´ time, as now, we find different positions, The Sadducees deny resurrection (Mk 12,18), they claim that there is neither resurrection nor angels nor spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all these things (Acts 23,8). According to the Jewish historian Flavio Josef, Sadducees “exclude the endurance of the soul, and also the punishments and the rewards of the Hades”; they say that “souls vanish at the same time as the bodies and they do not bother themselves to follow any other thing than the laws”. On their side, the Pharisees, who “are the guides of the main tendency”, say that “any soul is incorruptible and that only those souls belonging to the good people go to another body, while those of the bad people suffer eternal punishment” (War of the Jews, II, 162 – 166; Jewish antiquities XVIII, 16 – 17). People confuse resurrection and reincarnation: they believe that Jesus is one of the ancient prophets who had come back to life (Lk 9,8;9,19). 3. Marta, Lazarus sister, says what she has been taught, and she says it without too much enthusiasm: “I know that he will raise in the resurrection of the dead, at the last day” (Jn 11,24). Jesus answers her with the news of the Gospel: I am the resurrection. Whoever believes in me, though he dies, shall live. Whoever is alive by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? (11, 25-26). To the Sadducees Jesus says that those who die “are like angels and cannot die anymore. They are children of God, for he raised them. Even Moses showed it to be true in the passage about theburning bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. For He is a God of the living and not of the dead, and all live for Him” (Lk 20,36-38) 4. Some teachers of the Law told him: “Master, you have spoken well” (20,29). The idea of resemblance between the resurrected and the angels of heaven appears in the Jewish apocalyptic tendency: “All of them will become angels of heaven” (1 Henoc 51,5). “The just will become angelic splendour” ”they will dwell in the summits of this world, they will look like angels, on his desire they will take any aspect passing from beauty to great brightness, from the light to the splendour of glory” (Baruc´s Apocalypse 51, 5.10). It is the same language as that used in the passage of Jesus´ transfiguration: “Jesus´ appearance was changed before them: his face shone like the sun (Mt 17,2). Rising from death changes his condition, he transfigures himself: Then the just will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their father (Mt 13,43). 5. Greek philosopher Plato (ab.429 – 348) in his dialogues has Fedon describe the death of Socrates. Socrates sentenced to death by the Athenians, dies in his bed poisoned with hemlock. So peacefully and nobly did he die, that it seemed as if he had had “certain divine assistance” (F.246). Our body, he says, is” an obstacle”; “as long as the soul tries to examine something together with the body, it (the soul) is clearly deceived by it (the body)” (F.260). The soul finds herself enclosed in the body as in a prison: “Man is in a type of prison” (F.253). Death means liberation, “separation of the soul from the body” (F.258). Nevertheless, it is argued: “everything related to the soul generates in the people strong doubts due to the dread of not having any place to exist, once she abandons the body” (F.269). The philosopher believes that “it is necessary to believe it: “It is worth taking the risk to believe that it is so, for the risk is beautiful” (F.304). The person who had to give him the poison asked him what he should do: “Just drink it and take a walk, he replied, until your legs grow heavy, and then lie down. That is the way it has its effect” (F.309). Socrates, who believes in reincarnation, thought that “there is something awaiting the dead and, as it has been said since ancient times, much better for the good than for the bad” (F.256). 6. In Gethsemane Jesus knows that death is waiting for him, death on the cross (Phil 2,8). The Gospel says: “But he took Peter, James and John along with him, and as he became filled with fear and distress he said to them: - my soul is full of sorrow even to death; remain here and stay awake – (Mk 14, 33-34). The death that he faces is horrible. Jesus does not want to be alone in those moments. He looks for God’s presence and the assistance of his disciples. Jesus knows the implication of his mission: but I have the baptism to undergo and what anguish I feel until it is over! (Lk 12,50). And now that death is near, he implores to God: Abba, all things are possible for you; take this cup away from me. Yet not what I want, but what you want (Mk 14, 36). As the letter to the Hebrews says, Jesus offered his sacrifice with tears and cries, to him who could save him from death (Heb 5,7) 7. Nevertheless, Jesus talks about his own death like a step to pass from this world to the Father (Jan 13,1), a step from this world (subdued to death) to the new world (resurrected to life). He is going away, but he is coming back (Jn 14,28). The faithful will see him. A little while and the world will see me no more but you will see me (Jn 14,19). The parables of the grain of wheat that falls to the earth (Jn 12,24) and that of the woman in childbirth (Jn 16,21) show Jesus´ position. Death produces a fruit. It is like childbirth. Being in the limit condition of the cross, Jesus tells the good thief: Truly, you will be with me today in paradise (Lk 23,43). God saves the life of all those who believe in Jesus, to any that loses it for Him (Lk 9, 24; 2 Mc 7 y Dn 12,2). Even more, eternal life to which dead resurrect is already a possession of those alive that believe in Him: He who believes has eternal life (Jn 6, 47; see Col 2,12). 8. The faithful Israelite had the keen intuition that God shall loyally maintain his people with him forever; for you will not abandon my soul to the grave, nor will you suffer your holy one to see decay in the land of the dead. You will show me the path of life in your presence, the fullness of joy, at your right hand happiness forever (Ps 16, 10-11). The call for hope is God’s habit: Weep no more and dry your eyes, because. There is hope for your descendants (Jer 31, 16-17). From the beginning (Gen 3,15) the history of salvation is God’s invitation to the men for hope. God is hope in person, as it is said in the Psalm 71: For you, O Lord, have been my hope, my trust, O God, from my youth. 9. There was hope for Abraham, who believed against all expectations (Rm 4, 18-22). There was hope for Israel in the sea, in the desert, in the exile (Is 43, 16-19); there was hope for Jesus in the death. Jesus knows that from his violent death, the Father will bring forth resurrection and life (Mt 17, 23). He will change his fortune, there will be a third day behind death, as it is written: two days later he will bring us back to life; on the third day he will raise us up and we shall live in his presence (Hos 6,2), Peter announces it on Pentecost day: Let Israel know for sure that God has made Lord and Christ this Jesus whom you crucified (Acts 2,36). Along history Jesus of Nazareth manifests himself as Lord, equal to God. And in many ways he makes himself present among his people, with this signal too: Peace be with you (Jn 19. 21. 26) 10. There is hope for us. Paul says to the community of Thessalonica: Brothers, we want you not to be mistaken about those who are already asleep, let you grieve as do those who have no hope (1 Ts 4,13). And to the community of Corinth: Christ has been raised from the dead. He is the first, and the first fruits of those who have been asleep (1Cor 15,20). There is really a deep implication between Christ’s resurrection and ours. Saint Paul asserts it: If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised (1 Co 15, 16). So, together with the faithful in a Resurrected Christ, we confess: I believe in the resurrection of the dead. We believe that we will be ourselves in plenitude, plenitude that we cannot imagine: Eye has not seen, ear has not heard. What God has prepared for those who love him (1 Co 2,9). 11. Jesus´ resurrection has inaugurated for the whole world the down of a new day, resurrection day, the third day. The third day is not a calendar day, but the time that follows Jesus´ resurrection, one day with no sunset. Christ has made history the time of hope. He has come to free those who remained in bondage all their life because of the fear of death (Heb 2,15). Death does not have any more power on the man and the world. This allows Paul to say: Death has been swallowed up by victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting? ror is widely disseminated, that is, the displacement of the resurrection to the last day, history’s final day. The dead die for men, not for God. For God all are alive. But men withdraw from God and he is left with neither horizon nor future, sentenced to death (Gn 3,19). Man needs conversion and to discover God’s project: according to his plan we are not sentenced to death, but called to resurrect. Moses indicated it, says Jesus, before the Bible was written. The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are a God of those alive, not of those dead. 13. But the question arises again and again: How will the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they came back to life? Saint Paul says: You fools! What you sow is not the body of the future plant but the bare grain of wheat or any other seed (1 Cor 15, 35-37). He also says: When buried it is a natural body, but it will be raised a spiritual body (15,44). We talk, as we can, with common words and images of something that transcends us totally: life announced by Jesus, life that defeats death, resurrection like a flourishing, like a awakening, like a birth, like a down, like a dwelling in the Father’s home, like coming back. 14. We don’t know what the spiritual body, the resurrected body about which St. Paul talks (1 Cor 15,44; see GS 39), consists of or how it is resurrected. It certainly depends on the concept of man we have: dualist (soul-body), monist (man like a unity), fixist or static (man is like it is), evolutionary or dynamic (everything changes, the man too). Anyway, we believe that the man resurrects to image and resemblance of Jesus, the first raised from the dead (Col 1,18). But Christ resurrected the third day (Acts 15,4; see Mk 10,34), it is to say, after a small time lapses, at once (see Hos 6,2); Jon 2,1; Ps 16, 10-11). 15. If to love a person is to tell him: you will not die, every one of us can hear from the God who loves us the word that resurrects the dead. Jesus said it: Truly, the hour is coming, and indeed came, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and, on hearing it, will live (Jn 5,25); see 5,21). He also said: In my Father’s house there are many rooms (Jn 14,2) St. Paul says something similar: we know that when our earthly dwelling, or rather our tent, is destroyed, we may count on a building from God, a heavenly dwelling not built by human hands, that lasts for ever (2 Co 5,1). 16. In Liturgy we sing: “Life of those who believe in you, Lord, doesn’t end, it is transformed. And when our dwelling disappears, we gain an eternal home in heaven” And for those just dead we pray: “Grant him that, since he already shared Christ’s death, he can also share with him the glory of resurrection” (Eucharistic Prayer II). According to Vatican Council II, “the funeral rite must clearly express the paschal meaning of Christian death” (SC 81). All this does not prevent a possible purification (Lyon and Florence Councils, 1274 and 1439), nor for those who have done evil to rise to be condemned. (Jan 5,29). 17. In Revelations, martyrs already enjoy Christ’s resurrection, they live and reign with him (Rev 20, 4-5). During the first centuries, the day of their death is commemorated as the day of their birth. Saint Ignatius of Antioch (II c.) in his path to martyrdom writes, “My birth is approaching” (Letter to the Romans, 6,1). And also: “To the present, I am a slave. But if I could suffer martyrdom, I shall become free in Christ and I shall resurrect with him” (4,3). And, finally: “It is good that my life’s sun, leaving the world, hides itself in God, so that I break the day in him” (2,2) 18. In the experience of the communion of saints we can discover – in many ways – that the dead are alive, like Christ is alive. Relationship with them - says the Council - is not interrupted, but is strengthened; they speak for us (LG 49). Let’s take a look to the testimony or Saint Therese: “It happens sometimes to me that those who accompany me and in whom I find comfort are those I know that live there, and it looks to me that those are the truly alive, and that those living here are so dead that all the world seems to me of no company at all” (Life 38,6) 19. Why do you look for the living among the dead? (Lk 24,5) Like once the women looked for the Resurrected, many people look for their dead among the dead, in the grave. But they are not there. They have risen from the dead. They are alive, like Christ is alive. If we believe it many events will tell us about all this, confirming it in our own experience. As in that time: “The Eleven went forth and preached here, while the Lord continually worked with them and confirmed the message by miracles which accompanied them” (Mk 16,20). * For personal or group meditation: We live the fact of death:
|