Immortality

There is a growing interest in what has come to be known as ‘Near-Death Experiences.’ If you Google NDE you will be amazed at the results. You’ll find dozens of people giving personal testimonies, videos, and even support groups for people who have had a near-death experiences. For many, these experiences have been life-changing, especially for those who previously were agnostic or did not believe in God. Most say that they were overwhelmed by the all-embracing love of God and because of that are convinced of the existence of heaven and no longer have any fear of death.

One of the most pressing questions any of us has in this life is what happens when our life is over? For Christians “Belief in the resurrection of the dead has been an essential element of Christian faith from its beginnings” (CCC 991). “For those who die in Christ’s grace, it is a participation in the death of the Lord so that they can share in his resurrection” (CCC 1006). Our belief in the resurrection of the dead is based upon a faith relationship with God. We believe that “those who die in God’s grace and friendship live forever with Christ. As we read in the Catechism, “Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness” (CCC 1024). But there are many in the world who don’t believe or are not convinced of this concept of heaven.

Our gospel reading today presents us with the Sadducees, who did not believe in the afterlife, posing a hypothetical case to Jesus. The Sadducees were basically a sect within the Jewish community. They included many of the priestly class and elite wealthy families. They were not as numerous as the Pharisees, but they held the highest offices. They did not accept beliefs found in other parts of the Hebrew bible. They refused to believe in the existence of angels or the resurrection from the dead.

I was reminded of that dramatic scene in the Acts of the Apostles when Paul is brought before the Sanhedrin, the ruling council of the Jews, and said, “My brothers, I am on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead.” When he said this, a rowdy dispute broke out between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The Sadducees say that there is no resurrection or angels or spirits, while the Pharisees acknowledge all three. (See Acts chapters 22 and 23)

To put this reading in context, it is important to know that the Sadducees only accepted the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, known as the Pentateuch, the Torah. They said that they found no evidence of the resurrection in those five books, so they rejected the idea. It was based on this that they presented a problem to Jesus designed to show how false the whole idea of resurrection was.

They used as their argument Levirate marriage, (Deut. 25: 5-10) by which a man was expected to marry the childless widow of his brother. This was so that the dead man’s name would be carried on to the next generation. However, in their challenge, the Sadducees propose an extreme case where seven brothers, all who die before having children, are married successively to the same woman. They conclude by asking, “At the resurrection which of the brothers will be the wife’s husband, since she was married to them all?” The Sadducees felt that without belief in life after death, there is no problem, their hypothetical question was unanswerable, if not absurd.

Jesus answers their question on various levels. First, he implies that life after death is not the same as the physical existence that we now experience. Secondly, Jesus raises a point that is woven through the whole of the Gospel message. All those who are in Christ enter into a new relationship with God and other people. These relationships transcend family ties and marriage. Jesus says, “The children of this age marry and remarry; but those who are deemed worthy to attain the coming age, and to the resurrection of the dead, neither marry nor are given in marriage. They can no longer die, for they are like angels, and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise.” In this light, the argument of the Sadducees collapses. It is seen as very ‘this-worldly’ and narrow-minded.

Jesus ends his response by quoting a passage from Exodus, about Moses and the Burning Bush. “That the dead will rise,” Jesus says, “even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when the Lord called out, “I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, (Ex 3:6).” And God, Jesus tells the Sadducees, is God, “not of the dead, but of the living; for to him, all are in fact alive.” The Sadducees fall silent. They could not contradict the Word of God coming through Moses.

In general, the theme of today’s Mass is that Jesus is the Lord of life, a life that is not terminated by physical death. We see this in today’s first reading from the Book of Maccabees. The mother and her seven sons willingly die rather than transgress the laws and customs of their ancestors. All of whom give their life because of their belief in the resurrection. As the second brother said before dying, “The King of the world will raise us up to live forever.” And the same with the fourth, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the hope God gives of being raised up by Him.”

We must admit that we do not possess adequate knowledge or the language to describe what the resurrection will be like. I remember that soon before Fr. Gerald died one of the brothers asked him, “what is it like to die?” With his typical dry humor Fr. Gerald answered, “I don’t know, I’ve never done it before.” Jesus’s teaching in today’s gospel is that heaven cannot be understood as an extension of our present existence. We can’t simply assume that the life we live now will be the life we have in eternity. To this, I think many would say, ‘thank God.’

The stories in today’s liturgy present human situations which cry out to teach us the resurrection of the dead. Innocent suffering on behalf of truth, as depicted in the Maccabees, demands that the just God give a final rationale for human suffering, which is the perennial question of every generation.

Christian belief in immortality is unique and special. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, we believe, is the Good News of the fullness of life in this age, and of resurrection in the age to come.

In the final line of the Creed we say, “and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.” This belief, that at our resurrection our body joins with our spirit to continue our existence in eternal life, no one fully understands, at least not in this life. What we do know is that this life isn’t all there is. 

Today's homily by Father Emmanuel.