Homily
3-17-2013 (Cycle A) A Matter of Life and Death
When
we watch movies, especially action movies, we see situations where
the hero must make decisions that determine the life and death of
sometimes large groups of people, and often their own. Maybe we
sometimes forget that our spiritual life, which is more real than
anything on television, is also a matter of life and death.
Sin is
death. Spiritual death is worse than physical death. Living forever
with evil in our soul is not anything to be desired. Even if all
people were sinless, death would still remain a gift to humanity,
because it puts an end to the evils that we suffer in this life –
but most of all, the greatest suffering on earth is what we suffer
because of our own sins and the sins of others.
Ezekiel
promises to the people of his time that God is planning to restore
the dry bones of their current experience. After years in exile,
suffering the devastation of their capital city (and the Temple!),
and the horror of massive loss of life, the shame of enslavement
under Babylon, the Israelites feel death is their only companion,
taking place of the life and joy that were once almost tangible to
them. The dry bones which represent their seemingly irredeemable
existence, The Lord promises His people that these He will restore.
At the same time, we see a foreshadowing of the new life in Our Lord
Jesus.
In
restoring Lazarus to life, we see another foreshadowing. For us
Christians, we too experience some form of resurrection like Lazarus,
but what Lazarus experienced on a physical level (a mere biological
restoration, which we do profess in the Creed), we ourselves have
already experienced in our souls. Not having yet tasted physical
death, we ourselves know all too well what spiritual death tastes
like. Sin stinks worse than a body dead for four days, if we pay
attention to the spiritual sense of our consciences. But this does
not make Jesus afraid: “Take away the stone!” He is stronger
that physical death; He is stronger than spiritual death. He did not
make them, but, as God, Christ can use them according to His greater
plan to offer us everlasting life.
That
life, Ezekiel and Paul tell us, comes from the Spirit that the Lord
gives us. Paul stresses that “you are not in the flesh; you are in
the spirit if the Spirit of God dwells within...The one who raised
Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through
His Spirit.” What Paul is describing here is not a matter of body
versus soul, nor should “flesh” be thought of as simply our
physical desires. The term “Flesh” refers to living as a part of
Adam, as a part of humanity enslaved by sin. Life in the Spirit,
however, means living in Jesus, as a part of humanity made free from
spiritual death in the body of Christ.
It
would be an utter contradiction for those who are in the life of the
spirit to return to a life in the flesh. That would be like Israel
leaving Jerusalem to go back to the devastation, death, and slavery
of Babylon. Let us flee from sin as if from death! And if we find
ourselves spiritually stinky, we better go back to Confession to be
restored to spiritual life. No matter where we are, as we look
forward to the Holiest Week of our Church year, we take ownership of
our Baptism, and say with St. Thomas “Let us go too to die with
Him.” And thus dead to sin with Our Lord, leaving our life of the
flesh on the Cross, we may on Easter rise to new life with Him in the
Spirit.
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