Divine Life Is Eternal
Friday: Fifteenth Week of the Year: July 15, 2016
Year II: Isaiah 38:1-22; Canticle: Isaiah 38:10-16; Matthew 12:1-8
The Responsorial
Psalm reminds us that God is the Lord of death and of life: “You saved my life, O Lord, I shall not die “
(Isaiah 38).
In Isaiah
38: 1-22 God grants Hezekiah a “stay of execution.” Hezekiah is going to
die, but God delays his death by fifteen years. And as a sign that he will do
this he delays the setting of the sun for a few hours. Neither death nor night
is cancelled; both are simply delayed. And Hezekiah mourns the truth that all
life is terminal in his lament: “My dwelling, like a shepherd’s tent, is struck
down and borne away from me. You have folded up my life, like a weaver who
severs the last thread.” If Hezekiah quoted the Psalm: “You saved my life, O Lord, I shall not die,” he would have had to
add, “At least, not yet.”
Jesus changed all this. He said,
“Everyone who lives and believes in me will never die,” and “I am the living
bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live
forever.”1
In Masses celebrating Christian death
the Church proclaims, “For your faithful people life is changed, not ended….
[Jesus] chose to die that he might free all people from dying.”2
When we say, “You saved my life, O Lord, I shall not die, “ we mean it
absolutely. Jesus did not just delay the coming of night; he abolished darkness
forever. In the “new Jerusalem”
there will be no
more night; they need no light of lamp or sun…. The city has no need of sun or
moon to shine on it, for the glory of God is its light, and its lamp is the
Lamb. 3
Jesus came that we might “have life, and
have it to the full” — now and forever! 4
In Matthew
12: 1-8: Jesus counters the temptation to think he is just another prophet
calling people back to observance of the Law. He is “Lord of the Sabbath” and
Lord of the Law itself. He came to establish a New Covenant and a New Law — one
that would be, not the “manufacturer’s instructions” for getting the most out
of human life, but a law for living “life to the full,” divine life, life on
the level of God.
This is why Christians must never fall
into the “ministry of moralizing,” just insisting on good human behavior that
avoids sin. That is a temptation against the goal of Christianity itself.
Christian ministry that does not constantly hold up the vision of “life to the
full” soon reverts to the nitpicking legalism of the Pharisees who couldn’t see
the forest for the trees or understand love as anything but law. Christian
ministry is love calling us to love, divine life calling us to be divine,
Christ calling us to be Christ.
5
When we say, “You saved my life,” we mean “transformed”—from human to divine; from
prolonged to eternal.
Initiative:
Give God’s life: Be a “priest in the Priest.” Be Christ calling others to be
Christ.
Footnotes:
1John 11:26;
6:51.
2Prefaces I and
II for Christian Death.
3Revelation 22:5;
21:23.
4John 10:10.
5See St.
Augustine, quoted above for 12th Sunday, and Catechism of the Catholic Church 795.
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