Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Just a week into my last parish posting, I was
confronted by a distraught, grieving and very angry mother. Her son, a
brilliant scholar, had been killed in a road accident. She didn’t know what to
make of it. She was not only confused, she was angry with God. She said to me:
“Why has God done this to me? Why did He take my son away?” Convinced that God
had let her down, she was now on the verge of giving up on Him. In the face of
the most implacable, inexorable enemy of human race, I was lost for words. Who
could blame her for her anger? Many have found themselves in a similar
situation, encountered death in the family or among friends, and will be
equally unable to cope or even begin to understand how there is any justice or
wisdom in the sudden and violent demise of their loved one.
It gets one thinking: Why does God allow death, or why
did God create a world in which death even exists? We can begin to search for
an answer in today’s readings. The first reading, taken from the Book of
Wisdom, addresses this concern: Why does Death exist? Did God make death? And
if He didn’t, who did? The Book unwaveringly insists that “death was not God’s
doing,” in fact, “He takes no pleasure in the extinction of the living.” Those
words can be difficult to believe when we see people killed every day. But let
us suspend our judgment for a while. A little further in the passage we are
reminded that we are made in the image of God’s own nature, that is we were
made “imperishable” or in some versions, “incorruptible.”
If that was the case, why then does death exist? A
possible answer is, “they had it coming.” They are being punished. But what
happens if the person seems innocent and good. Why would death not discriminate
between the good and the bad, the old and the young? It is when death chooses
the good and the young that we cry foul. One common and simplistic answer is
that we are victims of forces beyond our control. Since we have no control over
our lives, we have no responsibility for our destiny. It’s all written in the
stars. There is an inherent fatalism in this view, a view that is firmly
rejected by Scriptures. But perhaps more destructive and sinister is to
attribute death not to blind fate but to the deliberate will of God. When there
is no longer anyone else to blame, it is easy to lay the blame at God’s feet.
The silence of God would be his indictment. But scripture rejects both fatalism
and placing the blame with God.
No, death didn’t just happened. Nor is it God's will. Death
is the result of sin. At the end of today’s first reading, we read that “it was
the devil’s envy that brought death into the world.” It is the final victory of
the devil, the result of his destructive activity. If man had not sinned, he
would not have died. His body may have changed and evolved over great periods
of time, but it would not have been separated from his spirit to return to the
dust, and man’s soul itself would not have been corrupted, losing power over
its body and becoming its slave. This is the meaning of the sin of Adam, made
in God’s image and inspired with His Spirit, and has chosen death instead of
life, evil instead of righteousness, and so through defilement of his nature in
rebellion against God, brought corruption and death to the world.
Even if God is exonerated of the crime of bringing
death into the world, it still does not provide us with the answer to our
painful experience of its existence in our lives. How can we fix the wrong? Who
can set things right? We find ourselves stumped again. We have created
incredible techniques and discovered miraculous cures and unbelievable
interventions that have added decades to so many lives. And yet there remains
the final certainty that our mortal life will end in death. No, we do not hold
the answer. There is only one who can
set things right. Only one who can reverse death and blunt its sting. The only
one who can give something much more than longevity and good health, the one
who can give us eternal life. The one who says to us, “Do not be afraid; only
have faith.” And then he turns to the child, “Talitha kum,” that is, “Little girl, I tell you to get up!”
The gospel reading therefore provides insight into
this Truth that God stands for life and not death. It is made up of two tales,
one of the healing of a woman who suffered from haemorrhage, and the other, the
raising of a dead girl. Without having to state the obvious, the woman with the
haemorrhage and the young girl eventually both died, as we all will. This did
not mean that Jesus had failed or merely postponed the inevitable. His healing
of the woman and his raising of the child are signs of the Kingdom of God. As
signs, they point to the kingdom’s ultimate plan, which is for union with God.
These miracles told the people of Jesus’ time, and us, that God walks with us
in our suffering with great love and tenderness, and promises that our
mortality is not the end of the story. For God is the God of life. The
righteous are not destined for death but for an eternal and immortal existence.
There is no denying that death is real, and that it
presents a source of pain in the here-and-now. But as Christians, we
must remember that death is not “part of God’s plan,” so to speak. It is
contrary to everything God is about. As strong as death may appear to be, as
sudden and as tragic as it may seem to be, death does not have dominion, it
does not have the final word. We are reminded that death is not the end of our
story as the people of God. It’s often said “death is only natural.” This
is entirely inaccurate. Death is un-natural, which is why we find it so
shocking and painful. We were created for imperishability, for incorruption,
intended for a life without end. We were created to be with God in Paradise
forever.
Through, his Passion, Death and Resurrection, Christ
has revealed to us a very different ending, an ending that does not conclude
with death as its final chapter. He
shows us the resurrection, the peace of immortality that awaits the righteous
faithful in Christ. He shows us what God does for his friends. As we grow
older, frailer, and weaker, the nearness and reality of death will seem every
more apparent to us. This is why we must never take our eyes off Christ and neither
should we doubt the victory he has over death, if not we will fall victim to
despair. The Book of Wisdom reassures us that our brothers and sisters are not
forgotten or forsaken by God. Their departure is not a true affliction, nor is
it destruction. Wisdom announces that the death of God’s faithful is only a
prelude to being held by God until the time of resurrection, when we will live
with God in the manner God originally intended.
One of my favourite quotes come from St Baldwin of
Canterbury who went bravely to his death in the Crusades. His words ring true
today and for all ages.
“Death is strong: it has the power to deprive us of
the gift of life. Love is strong: it has the power to restore us to the
exercise of a better life. Death is strong, strong enough to despoil us of this
body of ours. Love is strong, strong enough to rob death of its spoils and
restore them to us. Death is strong; for no man can resist it. Love is strong;
for it can triumph over death, can blunt its sting, counter its onslaught and
overturn its victory. A time will come when death will be trampled underfoot;
when it will be said: ‘Death, where is your sting? Death, where is your attack?’”
Yes, Death is Strong! But it is no match to the Love
of God. And that is our hope and our salvation!
