20210830 BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION
30 August, 2021, Monday, 22nd Week, Ordinary Time
First reading |
1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 © |
Do not grieve about those who have died in Jesus
We want you to be quite certain, brothers, about those who have died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope. We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him. We can tell you this from the Lord’s own teaching, that any of us who are left alive until the Lord’s coming will not have any advantage over those who have died. At the trumpet of God, the voice of the archangel will call out the command and the Lord himself will come down from heaven; those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them; to meet the Lord in the air. So we shall stay with the Lord for ever. With such thoughts as these you should comfort one another.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 95(96):1,3-5,11-13 © |
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
O sing a new song to the Lord,
sing to the Lord all the earth.
Tell among the nations his glory
and his wonders among all the peoples.
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
The Lord is great and worthy of praise,
to be feared above all gods;
the gods of the heathens are naught.
It was the Lord who made the heavens,
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
Let the heavens rejoice and earth be glad,
let the sea and all within it thunder praise,
let the land and all it bears rejoice,
all the trees of the wood shout for joy
at the presence of the Lord for he comes,
he comes to rule the earth.
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
With justice he will rule the world,
he will judge the peoples with his truth.
The Lord comes to rule the earth.
Gospel Acclamation | Jn8:12 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
I am the light of the world, says the Lord;
anyone who follows me will have the light of life.
Alleluia!
Or: | Lk4:18 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
The Lord has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 4:16-30 © |
'This text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen'
Jesus came to Nazara, where he had been brought up, and went into the synagogue on the sabbath day as he usually did. He stood up to read and they handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah. Unrolling the scroll he found the place where it is written:
The spirit of the Lord has been given to me,
for he has anointed me.
He has sent me to bring the good news to the poor,
to proclaim liberty to captives
and to the blind new sight,
to set the downtrodden free,
to proclaim the Lord’s year of favour.
He then rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the assistant and sat down. And all eyes in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to speak to them, ‘This text is being fulfilled today even as you listen.’ And he won the approval of all, and they were astonished by the gracious words that came from his lips. They said, ‘This is Joseph’s son, surely?’
But he replied, ‘No doubt you will quote me the saying, “Physician, heal yourself” and tell me, “We have heard all that happened in Capernaum, do the same here in your own countryside.”’
And he went on, ‘I tell you solemnly, no prophet is ever accepted in his own country.
‘There were many widows in Israel, I can assure you, in Elijah’s day, when heaven remained shut for three years and six months and a great famine raged throughout the land, but Elijah was not sent to any one of these: he was sent to a widow at Zarephath, a Sidonian town. And in the prophet Elisha’s time there were many lepers in Israel, but none of these was cured, except the Syrian, Naaman.’
When they heard this everyone in the synagogue was enraged. They sprang to their feet and hustled him out of the town; and they took him up to the brow of the hill their town was built on, intending to throw him down the cliff, but he slipped through the crowd and walked away.
BETWEEN DEATH AND THE RESURRECTION
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ 1 Th 4:13-18; Ps 96:1,3-5,11-13; Lk 4:16-30]
Bereavement is always a time of great sorrow when we mourn the death of our loved ones or those who died tragically or suddenly. It is only human and natural for us to grief on the death of our loved ones, those who have been close to us. Mourning and crying is part of the healing process in bringing closure to the separation from our departed loved ones. Even Jesus wept at the death of Lazarus. (Jn 11:33-35) As Christians, we are human beings with emotions and so there should be no constraint for us for to weep.
What St Paul exhorts us is that we do not grieve over them, “like the other people who have no hope.” In other words, we must not grieve in such a way that our loved ones are gone forever and they have been extinguished from the face of this earth, and reduced to dust and atoms in space. Indeed, for the world at large, many do not believe in life after death. This is why the greatest and last enemy of man is death. (1 Cor 15:26) Of course, people of other faiths believe in some kind of continuity after death. Some believe in reincarnation, transmigration of souls or that the dead will live in some shadowy place of lifeless existence.
But for Christians, we do not just believe in the continuity of the person after death or some form of immortality of the soul. We believe in the resurrection of the body. St Paul said, “We believe that Jesus died and rose again, and that it will be the same for those who have died in Jesus: God will bring them with him.” Writing to the Corinthians, he said, “If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised; and if Christ has not been raised, then our proclamation has been in vain and your faith has been in vain. But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have died. All will be made alive in Christ. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ.” (1 Cor 15:13,14,22,23) The resurrection will take place on the last day. This was what Martha said to the Lord “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day.” (Jn 11:24)
So the question that is posed in today’s first reading is, what will happen to those who have died before the last day? St Paul said, “We can tell you this from the Lord’s own teaching, that any of us who are left alive until the Lord’s coming will not have any advantage over those who have died. Those who have died in Christ will be the first to rise, and then those of us who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds, together with them, to meet the Lord in the air.”
Where are the dead now? Are they sleeping? Are they still existing? If they are sleeping, what is the basis for us to believe that the person that is sleeping is the same person since the body has turned to skeleton and dust? Where is that person really? This is where the question of the intermediate state has to be dealt with. In the Church’s teaching, the last four things are death, judgement, hell and heaven. In other words when we die, we are immediately judged and assigned our destiny, to be in hell, cut off and alienated from God and the saints, or to be in heaven enjoying the beatific vision of seeing God face-to-face and in the community of the saints.
However, some Christians do not accept the intermediate state. Because to do so means that one has to accept the immortality of the soul. Protestant Christians describe the person who dies as sleeping in the Lord if he had faith in Him and lived a righteous life. But how does a person sleep in the Lord if he has no state of existence? Why is there a great reluctance to admit the doctrine of the immortality of the soul?
Firstly, it is a philosophical question regarding anthropology. Human beings are created as an embodied spirit. We are not pure spirit, nor are we mere matter. We are spirit in matter. So if we separate the body from the spirit, we would have a diminished human person. This artificial separation is attributed to an influence of Greek philosophical dualism of form and matter, body and spirit, mind and body. For the Greeks, the soul is that immortal intellective mind. As far as Plato is concerned, the soul is not dependent on the body.
Secondly, it is a mistaken understanding of grace. Protestant Christians believe in the pure doctrine of grace. Salvation is through faith in God’s grace in Christ alone. We cannot earn salvation. It is therefore a reaction to the Catholic’s position that although salvation is a grace from God, we must cooperate with this grace by producing good works. Without good works, as St James said, there is no faith. (Jms 2:14-26) This danger becomes more real when Catholics in the doctrine of the immortality of the soul speak of purgatory, where a person who is not yet purified, undergoes continued purification after death. This appears to contradict the doctrine of grace.
Thirdly, it is also a reaction to the abuse of indulgences practiced in the Middle Ages where indulgences were gained through the offering of donations, pilgrimages, through good works, sacrifices and penances. Such practices give the impression that Catholics can buy the grace of God using monetary gifts or sacrifices. What is scandalous for some Protestants is that these good works can be applied to the souls in purgatory. As far as they are concerned, our destiny is fixed upon death and there is no turning back.
Of course, in truth, and on hindsight, we know that such abuses did happen and it has led to an extreme reaction from the Protestants in wanting to safeguard the doctrine of pure grace and justification by faith alone. But in truth, indulgences have been corrected and given a proper place and understanding in the Church as means by which we are united with the souls in purgatory by encouraging and helping them to let go completely the residues of all that are worldly and earthly that they are unable to let go and return to the Lord. This necessity for purification is what St John wrote, “What we do know is this: when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.” (1 Jn 3:2f) However, we must not think that purgatory is a mid-way between hell and heaven, a place of torture and extreme alienation from God. Those in purgatory are actually at the threshold of heaven. They are close to God but because they have difficulties in letting go completely of their anger, selfishness and attachment to the world that they could not give themselves completely to Him.
Indeed, the doctrine of the intermediate state, the immortality of the soul and the doctrine of purgatory, hell and heaven is consistent with the scriptures. Otherwise, we cannot explain where the dead are before the resurrection on the last day when as the Prophet Daniel said, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” (Dn 11:2f) Until then, the person who dies must continue to have some form of existence, which we call the soul.
Indeed, the Lord apparently endorsed the continuity of the soul even when a person dies when He said, “Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Mt 10:28) He also assured the good thief that “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise.” (Lk 23:43) Jesus also told the story about Dives being separated from Lazarus in hell. Abraham said to Dives, “between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.” (Lk 16:26)
For this reason, Catholics live with the consolation that our departed ones will not just rise again on the last day, but that they are already in heaven or on the way to the Father’s House. We can therefore find great relief and joy that our departed ones are not lingering around lifeless but are actually taken into the bosom of God, for the Lord assured us, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.” (Jn 14:2f)
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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