Jesus Shares in Blood and Flesh to Secure our Freedom

In today's second reading, we are given the following message:  "Since the children share in blood and flesh, Jesus likewise shared in them, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the Devil, and free those who through fear of death have been subject to slavery all their life" (Hebrews 2: 14).  "Who through fear of death have been subject to slavery all their life," what could that possibly mean? People scramble here and there, for this or that, compulsively consuming drugs and alcohol to the point of becoming unconscious, delirious, numb. Other people slavishly seek one experience after another, get involved in one sexual encounter, then another and another and another; run here, run there, seeking more and more material goods, larger paychecks, more yachts and summer homes, more and more expensive vacations, more clothes, more gadgets. Others are desperate to look younger and younger, going under the knife for face lifts and tummy tucks and what have you to defy age, to remove wrinkles and liver spots. Are we, in fact, afraid of death, afraid of advancing toward eternal life, afraid of going to Jerusalem with Jesus, unsure that our resurrection will be glorious?

St. Paul says to us in 1 Cor 2: 7-11, "It is of the mysterious wisdom of God that we talk, the wisdom that was hidden, which God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. None of the rulers of the age recognized it; for if they had recognized it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but it is as scripture says: 'What no eye has seen or ear has heard, what the mind of man[woman] cannot visualize; all that God has prepared for those who love him, to us, though, God has given revelation through the Spirit, for the Spirit explores the depths of everything, even the depths of God."

Is it that we are failing to explore the depths of life that we live on its surface only, living to get drunk or to numb out with material things, tummy tucks and face lifts or whatever the world offers as THE way to be fulfilled, actualized, made popular and powerful? Are we ignorant of THE WAY, THE TRUTH AND THE LIFE, and thus slaves to a fear of death?