Memorial of Saints Andrew Kim Tae-gŏn, Priest, and Paul Chŏng Ha-sang, and Companions, Martyrs

Lectionary: 447

If Christ is preached as raised from the dead,
how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?
If there is no resurrection of the dead,
then neither has Christ been raised.
And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching;
empty, too, your faith.

In a recent conversation with a fellow priest, we both admitted that we find little interest among the laity for eternal life, heaven, the resurrection of the dead, or "the hereafter." Not many families want a Mass for their loved ones; it's not unusual that devout elderly persons who attended Mass daily are not honored with a funeral Mass. Their children, "former Catholics," are willing to pay for only memorial and graveside services. I've sometimes conducted the only service for deceased persons, at the graveside, with one or two others; and we didn't know the deceased well. 

On the other hand, I do remember one fellow who was overwhelmed with grief and practically begged me to assure him there would be a resurrection from the dead -- for his dog. He said the passing of his parents and other relatives had not crushed him as much as the loss of a pet. 

Heaven and hell are the settings for many jokes and occasional skits, short videos, TV programs, and movies. They are described vaguely with clouds or dark, overheated caverns. But -- despite our weekly assertion that we believe in "the resurrection of the body and life everlasting" -- the modern imagination cannot comprehend endless living as a human body. The body we know with all its disabilities and limits does not lend itself to that scenario. Nor can we envision a risen body which is freed of those restrictions but nonetheless human, gendered, and subject to the cycles of day and night. Given their constant feeding at the heavenly banquet, and singing God's praises when their mouths aren't full, do the saints ever sleep? 

We rely on the scriptures, especially the Letters of Saint Paul and Revelation, to insist upon some form of endless life-after-death. The Apostle insists, 

"If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith."

The Catholic practice of venerating saints and martyrs, and calling upon their patronage when we pray, reminds us of eternal life. Some, like Saint Therese of Liseux, have promised to spend their eternity praying for us. Christians in Rome urged their martyrs-to-be to greet their loved ones on the other side. I've not encountered that practice among my fellow Catholics, though I personally requested it of dying Veterans when I was a chaplain in the Louisville VA hospital. 

And yet few of us can imagine ourselves dead, or our loved ones surviving us. Asked if Vladimir Putin is grooming a successor, a Russian reporter said, "He doesn't intend to die." 

Perhaps many people find this life endlessly dreary, boring, and uninteresting; and so they prefer not to think of an endless resumption of the same monotony on the other side. They're satisfied with the good life they've had, and their accomplishments, such as they were. They regret some things, of course, but regret does not summarize their life or experience. Some might say they're ready to discover further adventure.

Personally, I suppose we'll still need the courage to be. The American theologian Paul Tillich described God as One who defies Nothingness by his being, and out of that defiance the universe is created. But God's defiance is loving and generous, not angry. (Anger would not suffice.) God dares to be happy, and dares to share his happiness with his creation -- superabundantly! But nothingness does not disappear, and it haunts his creation with the specter of death, annihilation, and pointless futility. 

Human beings, unlike all other creatures, know of nothingness; we apprehend death though we cannot comprehend it. It's there; it's real; we're helpless before it. But we can hope, and our Christian belief in the Resurrection of Jesus grounds our hope. If he was not raised, then neither will we be raised up. And if we're not raised up to eternity, then why do we even bother to live? (And it is often a bother!) 

God gives us the courage -- call it the Holy Spirit -- to live, love, and laugh in the face of death, and before the prospect of endless death. God gives us the courage to risk, lose, and sacrifice even our own lives, if it comes to that. As the martyrs have done; as Our Lord has done. In obedience to the Courageous Spirit of God, we live, and move, and have our being. And it is good.