DEATH IS OVERCOME BY FAITH IN THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

20150628 DEATH IS OVERCOME BY FAITH IN THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

Readings at Mass

First reading

Wisdom 1:13-15,2:23-24 ©

Death was not God’s doing,

he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living.

To be – for this he created all;

the world’s created things have health in them,

in them no fatal poison can be found,

and Hades holds no power on earth;

for virtue is undying.

Yet God did make man imperishable,

he made him in the image of his own nature;

it was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world,

as those who are his partners will discover.

Psalm

Psalm 29:2,4-6,11-13 ©

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me

  and have not let my enemies rejoice over me.

O Lord, you have raised my soul from the dead,

  restored me to life from those who sink into the grave.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

Sing psalms to the Lord, you who love him,

  give thanks to his holy name.

His anger lasts a moment; his favour all through life.

  At night there are tears, but joy comes with dawn.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

The Lord listened and had pity.

  The Lord came to my help.

For me you have changed my mourning into dancing:

  O Lord my God, I will thank you for ever.

I will praise you, Lord, you have rescued me.

Second reading

2 Corinthians 8:7,9,13-15 ©

You always have the most of everything – of faith, of eloquence, of understanding, of keenness for any cause, and the biggest share of our affection – so we expect you to put the most into this work of mercy too. Remember how generous the Lord Jesus was: he was rich, but he became poor for your sake, to make you rich out of his poverty. This does not mean that to give relief to others you ought to make things difficult for yourselves: it is a question of balancing what happens to be your surplus now against their present need, and one day they may have something to spare that will supply your own need. That is how we strike a balance: as scripture says: The man who gathered much had none too much, the man who gathered little did not go short.

Gospel Acclamation

cf.Jn6:63,68

Alleluia, alleluia!

Your words are spirit, Lord, and they are life;

you have the message of eternal life.

Alleluia!

Or	cf.2Tim1:10

Alleluia, alleluia!

Our Saviour Jesus Christ abolished death

and he has proclaimed life through the Good News.

Alleluia!

Gospel

Mark 5:21-43 ©

When Jesus had crossed in the boat to the other side, a large crowd gathered round him and he stayed by the lakeside. Then one of the synagogue officials came up, Jairus by name, and seeing him, fell at his feet and pleaded with him earnestly, saying, ‘My little daughter is desperately sick. Do come and lay your hands on her to make her better and save her life.’ Jesus went with him and a large crowd followed him; they were pressing all round him.

  Now there was a woman who had suffered from a haemorrhage for twelve years; after long and painful treatment under various doctors, she spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, she was getting worse. She had heard about Jesus, and she came up behind him through the crowd and touched his cloak. ‘If I can touch even his clothes,’ she had told herself ‘I shall be well again.’ And the source of the bleeding dried up instantly, and she felt in herself that she was cured of her complaint. Immediately aware that power had gone out from him, Jesus turned round in the crowd and said, ‘Who touched my clothes?’ His disciples said to him, ‘You see how the crowd is pressing round you and yet you say, “Who touched me?”’ But he continued to look all round to see who had done it. Then the woman came forward, frightened and trembling because she knew what had happened to her, and she fell at his feet and told him the whole truth. ‘My daughter,’ he said ‘your faith has restored you to health; go in peace and be free from your complaint.’

  While he was still speaking some people arrived from the house of the synagogue official to say, ‘Your daughter is dead: why put the Master to any further trouble?’ But Jesus had overheard this remark of theirs and he said to the official, ‘Do not be afraid; only have faith.’ And he allowed no one to go with him except Peter and James and John the brother of James. So they came to the official’s house and Jesus noticed all the commotion, with people weeping and wailing unrestrainedly. He went in and said to them, ‘Why all this commotion and crying? The child is not dead, but asleep.’ But they laughed at him. So he turned them all out and, taking with him the child’s father and mother and his own companions, he went into the place where the child lay. And taking the child by the hand he said to her, ‘Talitha, kum!’ which means, ‘Little girl, I tell you to get up.’ The little girl got up at once and began to walk about, for she was twelve years old. At this they were overcome with astonishment, and he ordered them strictly not to let anyone know about it, and told them to give her something to eat.

DEATH IS OVERCOME BY FAITH IN THE DEATH AND RESURRECTION OF CHRIST

SCRIPTURE READINGS: WISD 1:13-15, 2:23-24; 2 COR 8:7,9, 13-15; MK 5:21-43

Last Sunday, the gospel was on Jesus calming the storm.  Yet the real storm is not from without but from within.  There is only one storm.  It is the storm of fear that lies in our heart.  We may have many fears: the fear that we will be without food, shelter, jobs or health, but underlying all fears is the fear of death.  Yes, the world does not fear God.  It does not fear sin.  But the one thing it fears is death.

So what does the world do?  Unable to conquer death, it disguises the face of death by distracting men from facing it.  Because if every man were to face death, then he will know that there is a God.  So advances in science and technology give man the impression that he is in control of his life.  So long as man does not confront death, he lives under the illusion that he will never die.

Christian faith however does not hide the reality of death.  The first reading and the gospel speak on the theme of illness and death.  The good news is that death is not the wish of God.  The book of Wisdom makes it clear that “Death was not God’s doing, he takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living. To be – for this he created all; the worlds created things have health in them, in them no fatal poison can be found, and Hades holds no power on earth; for virtue is undying. Yet God did make man imperishable, he made him in the mage of his own nature.”  Yes, God created us to be immortal.

Then where does death come from?  The book of Wisdom pinpoints the cause of death.  “It was the devil’s envy that brought death into the world.”  Because of sin, man has lost the integrity of life.  Sin has cut him off from God.  He no longer remembers his origin, where he comes from.  So how can he remember where he is going after his life on earth?  He lives under the notion that his life is meant to be on this earth forever, which of course he knows is not.  Hence, he concludes that death is a curse.  He no longer sees death as a necessary passage to the fullness of life.  Instead, he sees death as alienation from life, especially from his loved ones.

Does it then mean that we will not die if our first parents did not sin?  Yes, but not in a biological sense.  We will not die in the sense of how man experiences death in our present life.  We will die, or better still, like the Blessed Virgin Mary, seamlessly enter into a new world where there are no more tears and death.  Death for those in union with God is not seen as a punishment but a release into the fullness of life and a conquest over the fear of death.

Thus, the death that scripture refers to is not so much a physical or biological death.  The real death that that makes our life such a misery is a moral and spiritual death.  Truly, this is what Christian faith teaches about death as a punishment for sin.  When St Paul in Romans says that the wages of sin is death, he is referring not so much to the biological death but moral and spiritual death.

What then is so terrible about moral and spiritual death?  It is a death that is chronic, a death that never dies.  It is the death of the soul, when one is cut off from the source of life and love; that is God Himself.

Moral death refers to the state of unhappiness and misery brought on by fear of death.  Because he is cut off from God, man begins to believe that he is some kind of god, solely responsible for this world and his life.  If man is selfish, self-centered and ambitious, is it not because he wants to preserve his life?  Why does man want to have power?  Isn’t it simply because he is afraid of other men?  Instead of seeing them as fellow wayfarers, he views them as enemies, since they are his competitors.  One can become so obsessed with death that every person is seen with suspicion because he or she is a threat to his or her existence.  So a fearful and selfish man is a lonely man.  He has no friends and he loves no one.  He wants power only because he does not want to die.

Yes, the fear of death is what makes a person truly unhappy.  Happiness is more than just having a good material life or having good looks or even a healthy body.  Happiness is a matter of the heart and the mind.  It is not what we have or do not have that will determine our happiness.  That is why Jesus said that He has come to give us a joy and a peace that the world cannot give.  The world can only give us pleasure which we mistake for joy; and material security which is a false peace.  So long as we live under the threat of death, how can there be peace and freedom? True victory is victory over the self!

Christian Faith, however, goes beyond the acknowledgement of the reality of death.  The Good News is that death has been conquered by Christ’s death and resurrection. This is the intent of today’s healing miracles in the gospel.  The healing of the woman who suffered from “a hemorrhage for twelve years” and the raising of the official’s twelve year old daughter signifies that Jesus is the healer and the one who comes to give us life.   The power of Jesus to give life is accentuated by the fact that the woman “after long and painful treatment under various doctors … spent all she had without being any the better for it, in fact, … was getting worse” was healed by Jesus’ divine power.  And in the case of Jarius’ daughter, Jesus not only healed but resuscitated her to life.  Clearly, the gospel presents Jesus as the life giver, tantamount to saying that He is God, since only God can give life and has power over death!

Hence, it is important that we go beyond the healing miracles of Jesus.  What is even more important than the physical healing we receive from Jesus is faith in Him as the resurrection and the life.  For the truth is that the woman and the girl eventually died too. We cannot expect God to be healing us all the time and prolonging our life indefinitely on this earth.

Truly, anyone who believes in his heart and confesses with his lips that Jesus is Lord, as St Paul tells us in his letter to the Romans, is saved!  For when we believe that Jesus has conquered death, then no longer are we under the bondage of death.  The one who no longer fears death, need no longer be under the bondage of sin, since all sins thrive on the fear of death.  When we conquer death like Jesus, we conquer sin.  Hence, physical death has always been the symbol of a spiritual death.  Physical death truly is the sacrament or sign of a person under the bondage of sin.

Yes, we can rejoice because we should no longer be frightened of death.  No longer do we need to fear that death will separate us from our loved ones.   On the contrary, in death, we remain in communion more than ever. This is what the doctrine of the communion of saints is all about.  In Christ, we are all one with each other, the saints on earth and the saints in heaven.

Thus, the gospel today invites us to imitate the faith of the woman and that of the synagogue official.  Their faith is in stark contrast to the disciples who were on the boat in the storm.  The woman’s faith was great, for she believed that she could be healed just by touching the hem of Jesus’ clock.  And she was not disappointed.  Similarly when the mourners were laughing at the possibility of Jesus’ raising the dead daughter to life, the official continued to place his hope in Jesus.  We too must strengthen our faith in Jesus as the healer and the life-giver.  Because Jesus is alive and has been raised, we must never doubt that there is anything that He could not do.

More importantly, we must not only come to Jesus to seek for physical healing, for the real healing we need is emotional, psychological, moral and spiritual healing.  Often, people only look for physical healing.  Even if they are cured, they will quickly fall back to illness because the body is affected by the spirit.  If the soul is sick and if the mind is contaminated, the body will become sick.  Yes, if we are living in sin, under the bondage of anger, hatred, pride, envy, greed, lust, sloth or gluttony, we will destroy not only our body but our mind and soul as well.  Most sicknesses originate from emotional and spiritual disorder. A person who does not fear death in this life is set free from every sin because God is his life-giver.

Hence, what we should be asking is not for physical healing but to go to the root of all sicknesses, namely, the fear of death.  A person, who is healed spiritually, finds peace and joy in his heart.  For such a heart, there is real happiness even if there is physical suffering that comes from poverty or from ill health.  He knows that life is found only in God.  For real joy is to live a life of freedom, love and a clear conscience, knowing that one has hurt no one and has loved all men.  A person who loves even his enemies already lives the risen life and shares in the life of God.  Even if we face death, we know that this is not the end but the entrance to the fullness of life beyond what we enjoy on this earth.

Written by The Most Rev William Goh

Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore

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