30 June 2024

30 June 2024 - 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Transcript

Reading:  

Wisdom 1:13a, 14a

Write:  

God did not make death, … For God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world…

Reflect:   

Does this mean that everyone who ever lived would still be here on earth? I don’t think so. Our first example of this kind of a truth happens in the fourth and fifth chapters of Genesis. Enoch was the great-great-great-great-grandson of Adam and Eve. Genesis tells us that he lived for three hundred and sixty-five years and then he just “walked with God.” He disappeared off the face of the earth! But Enoch’s three hundred and sixty-five years was nothing compared to his son, Methuselah, who lived for nine hundred and sixty-nine years!

Now, were these long lives historical? Can we trust the Bible to be exact in these numbers? I do not think that is asking the right questions. The right question here is: what do these long lives mean? The answer to me is: it means a righteous life. The Bible tells us that Adam lived nine hundred and thirty years. He had a very close knowledge of who God is. But his one failure cost all of humanity a great deal. But we were not intended to face a physical death that is the result of sin. I believe we were intended to be like Enoch and simply walk with God into heaven.

There was going to be a transformation for all of us that included leaving this earth. This transformation is still our destiny in the Resurrection. But because of sin and the envy of the devil, death was introduced to the human race. It was not something God intended.

But look at it from another perspective. Because of sin, death had to be introduced. The damage to the relationship with God demands an end to the physical life that we know here and now. There are consequences to sin. Taking this point to its next conclusion, it seems to be saying that Enoch may never have sinned! Is this the same thing that happened to Elijah because he was taken up in the fiery chariots of Israel? Is this the same thing that we declare with the Assumption of Mary? Well, we know Mary is the Immaculate One, but other parts of the Bible would argue that there are no exceptions to the rule that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” especially according to St. Paul. So I think it likely that Enoch and Elijah probably had some venial sins, but maybe no mortal sins. Not Our Lady though!

Now, let’s return to the idea of the consequences of sin. There has to be some sort of a transformation that happens to the damaged body that we have now. But the promise of the Resurrection is that we will receive a new body – one that has been perfected like Jesus’ own body after his Resurrection.

Our first reading says that God did not make death! But didn’t God make everything? He does not like death. He planned on a transformation from this life to eternity. But because of sin, that transformation went into a short circuit called death. God knows it is necessary because of the damage that has been done to the human body because of sin. What will our glorious, resurrected body look like? We have no way of knowing right now. But we do know that if we were to see someone in their resurrected bodily form, in all of the splendor that is from heaven, we would be tempted to fall down and worship that creature – that perfected human being – because of the perfection that will be the gift of heaven.

We have been made in “the image of God’s own nature.” Yes, we have mucked it up. But it does appear that there are those even today who have had more exemplary lives. There are quite a few saints whose bodies are incorrupt. They have never decayed. We even have one in our nearby state of Missouri, near Kansas City – though she has not yet been declared a saint, there are many incorrupt who have been declared such by the Church. Sister Wilhelmina Lancaster, the foundress of a convent of Benedictine sisters was found to be remarkably without decay in her body four years after her death.

This is my personal opinion – so, red flag it if you like, it is just my personal opinion – but I believe the reason why God gives us some of these noted saints is to remind us of what he has called us to be by creating us. 

There is a difference between someone like Sister Wilhelmina whose body is still on earth and someone like Enoch or our Blessed Lady whose bodies are in heaven. I guess I would call an incorrupt saint a reminder of what holiness is and what we are called to be. 

Their earthly remains have not yet been transformed into the glorified body that is our destiny. But, because of their love for God, he gave them this special gift. Think of it this way: God would not let corruption touch the body of his own mother because of her perfection in her life. The saints who are shown to be incorrupt after their deaths lived such an exemplary life that God has granted this other gift – not just to them, but to us who are striving to work out our salvation while we still live our lives here on this earth.

God did not make death. I think he is saddened that the experience of death must impact every one of our lives. But I also think it is a good blessing. Here is how it is. Because sin has so infected our world, we cannot enter heaven in the condition of our bodies now, riddled as they are with the effects of sin. So, while the devil intended death to interfere with our approach to God, God made it so that it is actually a blessing because we get to dump the junk. We await the transformation that is our destiny when we will be raised up into a form that is better than we would have had at any time during our lives here on earth.

I am reminded of a saying by my dad: God is the only one who can make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Life from death!

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