Carrying the Dying and the Rising of Jesus in our Bodies

In today's first reading, 2 Cor 4: 7-15, St. Paul reminds the Corinthians, and us, that we "are afflicted in every way, but not constrained; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our body. for we who live are constantly being given up to death for the sake of Jesus, so the life of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us." But so is the Spirit, the spirit of faith. We know "that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and place us...in his presence."

Death is all around us via the covid-19 virus and we are warned that this situation will only get worse! Sadly some people still believe our president who, in the beginning of this outbreak, named it a "hoax."  The majority of people, however, have come to realize that the information about the virus has to be taken seriously and that, by no means, is the coronavirus a joke. Thousands of people, all over the world, have died from this virus and continue contracting the disease every day. Thousands continue dying from the illness.

Yes, death is all around us! But so, too, is the Spirit. We carry the dying and the rising of Jesus in our bodies.   In the midst of the presence of death, is the presence of Jesus. We are not abandoned. And, in faith, we know that death is not the end of our lives but the beginning of our lives in eternity!

As difficult as times are right now, we know, in faith, that Jesus is in the boat with us. He may seem asleep but is not. He bids us come to Him, as He bade Peter to come to Him over the waters. When Peter took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink, Jesus reached out His hand and saved him. He does the same for us.

Let us keep our eyes on Jesus and not sink under the onslaught of those who are venting their anger in our streets, destroying property, killing fellow citizens, striking out wildly at those who speak the truth. Jesus saves!  Jesus is God! We are not!

Trusting and Loving God to Dying for God's Sake

In today's responsorial psalm, Psalm 130, we pray:  I trust in the Lord; my soul trusts in his word." For me, trust and love are synonymous!  If I trust God, I love God. And if I love God, I trust God.

For me, Jesus, the new Adam,  models trust in God.  He said "yes" to God to the point of death on the cross.  The first Adam, on the other hand, says "no" to God, believing that in saying "no" to God  true freedom would be found. The opposite is true, and Jesus models that opposite, namely, that in saying "yes" to God we find freedom. It is in losing one's live that one saves it, Jesus teaches us, and in saving one's life that we lose it.  He also  teaches that the grain of wheat must die to bear fruit.  Every day we have opportunities to die to self, to lose ourselves,  to bury the "grain of wheat," for the sake of the other, giving our all for the sake of the common good, as Jesus gave His all on the cross and rose to new life, to wholeness, to ultimate freedom.

Am I willing to say "yes," that is, to die to self, as often as necessary each day and thus rise to new life, to a new sense of freedom?  Or am I a person who sets out each day to say "no," believing as Adam and Eve did, that by saying "no" I am free? Jesus said "yes" to dying on the cross and in that dying rose to new life, to new freedom, and showed us the depth,  the height, the width, and length of God's love. To what lengths, depths, heights, widths will I go to love as God loves?  Am I coming to realize that it is by saying "yes" to "losing one's life" that one "saves it" and that, yes, the grain of wheat needs to die to bear fruit that will last, a fruit that includes authentic freedom and a rising?

Being a Disciple of Jesus

In today’s first reading, Jeremiah 18: 18-20, we are told about the people of Judah’s plot to kill Jeremiah: “Come, let us contrive a plot against Jeremiah. It will not mean the loss of instruction from the priests, nor of counsel from the wise, nor of messages from the prophets. And so, let us destroy him by his own tongue; let us carefully note his every word.”   Jeremiah asks God to spare him this kind of suffering:

                Heed me, O Lord,

                And listen to what my adversaries say.

                Must good be repaid with evil

                that they should dig a pit to take my life?

                Remember that I stood before you

                To speak in their behalf,

                to turn away your wrath from them.

               

Obviously, Jeremiah is a prefiguration of Jesus. Throughout Jesus’ public ministry, the scribes and the Pharisees plotted to put Him to death by his own words.  ”Carefully, [H]is every word” was noted.   Like Jeremiah, Jesus begs His Father to take note.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, “he threw himself on the ground and prayed that, if it were possible, this hour might pass him by. ‘Abba, Father! For you everything is possible. ‘Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you, not I, would have it.”

How willing, when I encounter suffering, am I to pray: “Abba, Father! For you everything is possible. Take this cup away from me. But let it be as you,  not I, would have it”?

In today’s Gospel, Matthew 20: 17-28, Jesus tells the Twelve that they are on their way up to Jerusalem. “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be handed over to the chief priests and the scribes, and they will condemn him to death, and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified, and he will be raised on the third day.”

You and I, throughout our life time, also are on our way to Jerusalem.  And, like the Twelve, we don’t always get it (See today’s Gospel)!  Sadly, we could, like them, still be clamoring for first place, for places of privileges, for special favors that put us above others, as in the case of James and John, who, through their mother, begged to be given special privileges in Jesus’ kingdom, which at that point they still believed would be an earthly one!

For what am I clamoring? Do I realize that, as a follower of Jesus, I, too, am going up to Jerusalem, where, through the process of dying and through death itself, I will be raised to a new life of grace, a life where good triumphs over evil, where I am put in right relationships with God, self and others, where there are no more tears or suffering,  and where sin will not prevail?

The Feast of All Souls

Today we celebrate the Feast of All Souls, that is, we remember all of those who have gone before us, all who have fallen asleep in the Lord and who, in Christ Jesus, will be brought back to life in eternity.  All of the just are in God’s hands, the author of Wisdom tells us in chapter 3: 1-9.  We certainly grieved their passing and may even have thought that their deaths were a tragedy or absolute foolishness.  Some believe that their loved ones are dead, period!  And that nothing exist after our deaths.   But, no, there is life after death. Jesus died and rose. In our baptism, we died and rose with Christ. Our final resurrection will happen at the end of our lives, as it did for Jesus.  

You and I walk this earth, undergoing a chastisement, a purification, as we grow in intimacy with the Lord.  At the appropriate time, God’s time, we will leave our earthly life for a heavenly one, having been “found worthy” of God, Wisdom tells us. “As gold in the furnace, [God proves us], and, [in death] as sacrificial offerings [God takes us] to himself. In the time of [our] visitation we] shall shine, and shall dart about as sparks through stubble…and the Lord shall be [our] King forever....[The] faithful shall abide with [God] in love: because grace ad mercy are with his holy ones, and his care is with his elect.”  You and I, through our baptism, are God chosen ones, God’s elect. Death will have no more power over us than it had over Jesus.  St. Paul says to us in Roman s 6: 3-9:  “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life.  For we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection.”    Yes! With Jesus, we shall overcome death and, like Jesus, rise to new life in our own resurrection!

I believe! How about you?

Dying and rising with Christ

In today’s Gospel, Mt 17: 22-27, Jesus tells his disciples that “the Son of Man is to be handed over to men, and they will kill him, and he will be raised on the third day.” The disciples were overwhelmed with grief, St. Matthew tells us. They did not yet get it. Jesus is not of this earth. He is God in human form and will be returning to the Father when He completes the Father’s will here on earth—our salvation through the blood of the cross. The cornerstone of our salvation will be rejected by the builders and put to death and will rise again. Death will have no power over Him and not over us either. I could not help but think how often I see only the negative, that which I judge disastrous, that which I believe is not supposed to be. Throughout the day, God gives me opportunities to die to selfishness and rise to new life through Him. Fearing that I will lose something of value, I may hang onto being right, arguing my point, clinging to that to which I may believe I am entitled—the opportunity of a resurrection may be lost in the process.