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Do You Think Believing in an Afterlife Affects the Way You Behave in This Life?

Posted on May 7, 2024 by Father Joe

Krystal Smith poses this question at STAPLER CONFESSIONS and states: “Atheists might point out the idea that some believers could allow the concept of an afterlife, heaven and hell, or reincarnation to weigh the significance of the events in their worldly life. The presumption that death isn’t the end could have an influence of people’s behavior and day to day decision making.”

This is a no brainer. If religion with threats of eternal perdition cannot restrain some from evil acts, why should we expect atheism to do any better? Atheists have neither perfect contrition (sorrow for having offended God whom we are to love) or the imperfect (fear of the fires of hell and the loss of heaven). Where is the incentive to be good when we can only expect to be forgotten and the looming prospect of becoming worm food?

The Christian perspective is more complex than simple reward and punishment. The posture of the creature to the Creator is one of obedience and adoration. We have been promised a share in Christ’s life and the reward of happiness in the presence of God forever. However, we do not deserve salvation and could not merit it on our own. Humanity fell from grace and God made a promise to redeem us— but this is entirely on the level of gift, not entitlement (no matter how good we might be). Even if God should have decided to leave us estranged from him; we would still be obliged to worship and obey him. We thank God for what he gives us, but we praise or give him glory for who he is. This is the high ground of Christian discipleship. It is true that the resurrection is the hook of Christianity, and the prospect of heavenly reward or hellish punishment is real— but we are to love God because he is God. The gifts he gives us are wonderful but there is no bargaining with God. Our love must be freely returned to God. The love of a saint is not for sale and cannot be bought. If God can love us then we must freely love God in return, even if our lot is suffering, sickness and death. Many fail to understand this. Note that some equate prayer entirely with petition— they want this, that, and the other thing. The highest prayer of praise or adoration is very different— I love you; you know I love you; I will always love you. We sing glory to God, not to pamper a deity but to pour out hearts to a God for whom we were made.

Having said all this, some will only be good because there is reward or punishment. This appreciation is at the basis of most legal systems. Do something wrong and you will face fines or imprisonment. There is something of it in the classroom as well. Get an “A” and you pass and have promotion. Get an “F” and you fail and get sent back. But truthfully, the Christian perspective looks at all of us as failures. We receive merit or know victory in the salutary work of Christ and his Cross. Jesus pays the price for us. Of course, it is a gift that must be received. Disposition is everything.

The atheist must live with his failure. No matter what his earthly achievements, the end of one is the same for all. No matter whether one is rich or poor, powerful or weak, good or evil, healthy or sick— it all comes to the same thing— absolutely nothing. We along with all our works will be reduced to dust. We might find some short satisfaction in the present, but loss, pain and death will quickly follow. You cannot win. We all live in vain. Indeed, all the works of humanity will one day be destroyed and like the various species before us, we will know extinction. This view portrays humanity as a cosmic accident. There is no deeper meaning or purpose and definitely no hope.

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A Glimpse into the Mind of Christ

Posted on April 8, 2024 by Father Joe

I have spoken before about what Christ knew as a man and yet questions remain. There is no way that we can absolutely penetrate this issue. Why is it important? Particularly for those of us who pursue an active intellectual life, living largely in our heads, this matter touches the depths of our own sense of identity. What we know and believe largely defines us and our place in the human family. The operations of the human soul, knowing and willing, speak to our appreciation of faith and our convictions— separating us from animals and machines.

As a pastor of souls, I have also accompanied families in their dealing with aging relatives suffering from Alzheimer’s and other ailments of the mind. Families confessed to losing loved ones, not all at once, but a little at a time. Eventually they must deal with loving someone who does not even know his or her name. It is our firm confidence that the soul retains that which escapes the grasp of physical brains. We hope that one day we will be restored body and spirit— sharing something of Christ’s resurrection.

I mention this, because I firmly believe that if we and the world forget— God will never forget. This is very pertinent to Christ because when as a man he is most vulnerable on the Cross, as God he is the most powerful in offering himself for each of us by name. Jesus knows us better than we know ourselves. Such is the wonder and necessity of his divine knowledge.

Christ possesses both his divine and human intellect. Further, as the new Adam, he would claim what our primordial parents had lost— an infused science that complements experiential knowing. Further, he always enjoys the beatific vision. As a divine person, Christ knows all things. His conceptual knowledge could not expand because it was already infinite. While the general awareness of Christ is unbounded, his experiential knowledge is mysteriously shielded or preserved. When he walked the earth as one of us, his human experiential knowledge came through his physical senses. While his divine knowing and infused knowledge were always a part of him, in his humanity he could ask questions (see John 18:4 and John 6:5-6).

Variations of Gnosticism plagued the early high Christology of the Church. Docetism was a heresy that Jesus was fully divine but only appeared or pretended to be human. Monothelitism also stressed the divinity of Christ but denied he had a human will, just a divine will. Apollinarianism reduced Jesus’ body to a shell for his divinity, with no human soul (and thus no human mind and will). Others would assault the identity of Christ from the perspective of a low Christology, viewing Jesus more as a creature than the Creator: Nestorians (viewing Mary as the “mother of the man” but not as the Bearer of God) and Arians (defining Jesus as a spiritual demiurge but not truly divine). All these false roads also espouse an erroneous psychology in the Lord.

The business about Christ’s identity and awareness is still explored and often gotten wrong, particularly in films, television, and popular books. The novels about Jesus from the late Anne Rice appealed to the apocryphal and were dangerously shallow in trying to speak from Jesus’ perspective. Her Jesus was neither omniscient nor omnipotent. He was liable to error and was more human than divine. As a corrective, we have the life of Christ given us by the late Pope Benedict XVI. He writes in regard to the finding of Jesus in the temple:

On the one hand, the answer of the twelve-year-old made it clear that he knew the Father— God— intimately. Only he knows God, not merely through the testimony of men, but he recognizes him in himself. Jesus stands before the Father as Son, on familiar terms. He lives in his presence. He sees him. As Saint John says, Jesus is the only one who rests in the Father’s heart and is therefore able to make him known (cf. Jn 1: 18). This is what the twelve-year-old’s answer makes clear: he is with the Father, he sees everything and everyone in the light of the Father. And yet it is also true that his wisdom grows. As a human being, he does not live in some abstract omniscience, but he is rooted in a concrete history, a place and a time, in the different phases of human life, and this is what gives concrete shape to his knowledge. So it emerges clearly here that he thought and learned in human fashion. It becomes quite apparent that he is true man and true God, as the Church’s faith expresses it. The interplay between the two is something that we cannot ultimately define. (Pope Benedict XVI, Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives, p. 127)

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Mystery of the Incarnation

Posted on April 5, 2024 by Father Joe

An important verse for the ancient school of Alexandria was John 1:14: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth.” This is what authorities call a high Christology because the emphasis is upon Jesus as God and only secondarily upon him as man. Who is Jesus? He is God come down from heaven to save us.

Given the revelation of the Trinity, Jesus is understood as the Second Person of the one triune God. Conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the eternal God joins himself to his creation and begins to exist in time. The Son of God becomes one of us, entering our world through the immaculate vessel that he had fashioned and safeguarded for himself. It all begins not with the nativity scene but with the annunciation:

Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall name him Jesus. But Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?” And the angel said to her in reply, “The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God.” (Luke1:30-31, 34-35)

God would come himself to make things right, making possible— the forgiveness of sins, hope against despair, healing to the broken, liberation from spiritual bondage, and the victory of love over death.

The incarnation is a deep mystery that we cannot fully penetrate. Who is Jesus? He is almighty God and the second Person of the Trinity. He is the eternal Word. What is Jesus? He is God and man— two natures that are substantially joined in the one person of Jesus Christ. Both natures are whole and complete. His human nature is body and soul. His soul possesses both a human intellect and will.

This is no spiritual adoption of an ordinary man as through an accidental union of the godhead. He is no Gnostic phantom or a God pretending to be a mortal man. Jesus Christ is a unique individual whose soul and flesh is substantially joined in the divine Person of the Lord. Yes, this is a fantastic claim. Note how Caiaphas responds to our Lord’s admission of his identity:

But Jesus was silent. Then the high priest said to him, “I order you to tell us under oath before the living God whether you are the Messiah, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him in reply, “You have said so. But I tell you: From now on you will see ‘the Son of Man seated at the right hand of the Power’ and ‘coming on the clouds of heaven.’” Then the high priest tore his robes and said, “He has blasphemed! What further need have we of witnesses? You have now heard the blasphemy; what is your opinion?” They said in reply, “He deserves to die!” (Matthew 25:63-66)

Jesus is not simply a prophet. If he is not God and the promised Messiah, then his claim was indeed blasphemy. But our Lord affirms his identity by his works— the sick are healed, the possessed are exorcised, and the dead are raised. He forgives sins which is a prerogative reserved to God. (Priests can do so because Jesus has extended something of his authority to mortal men.)

There was no division in Christ but rather a perfect harmony between his two natures. His divine and human wills were in perfect sync. Room was made for his human knowing while not impoverishing or forfeiting his divine mind. As God, Christ knew all things; as human, he had genuine experiential knowledge and beheld the beatific vision.

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What if God Were One of Us?

Posted on April 3, 2024 by Father Joe

Many years ago, when I was a seminarian, I recall a class discussion over Luke 2:51-52:

“He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and was obedient to them; and his mother kept all these things in her heart. And Jesus advanced in wisdom and age and favor before God and man.”

The context was the tension between the theological school of Antioch that emphasized the humanity of Christ with the school of Alexandria that focused upon his divinity. The latter school stressed John 1:1-3:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be.”

The biblical verse from Luke substantiated the claims of Antioch. However, it seemed to fly in the face of the Church’s discernment that Jesus Christ was a divine person, albeit with two natures. While Jesus could certainly grow in age regarding his humanity, how could he really advance in wisdom and grace or holiness? While we should be careful about presumptions toward the mind or psychology of Christ, it must be held that as God he assuredly knew all things. It would be absurd to imagine him as an amnesiac deity. He knew from the womb who he was and his mission. The best we can figure, so as not to destroy his human “experiential” knowledge, he must have pocketed or set aside the fullness of divine knowledge or awareness. It was always there, but like a book that needed to be taken off a shelf.

An analogy can be made as to how we all know things. While we can call upon our many memories and knowledge, it is an element of human psychology that we do not focus upon everything at once. We concentrate on a few things or what we need at any given moment. I suspect it was the same for the incarnate Christ. However, when there was a need, he could call upon his infinite divine knowledge, as he does in prophesying his passion and reading souls that he would heal and forgive. Thus, Jesus could have learned carpentry from his foster father Joseph, even though in his divine knowing, he could have built wooden television consoles. But Jesus is careful not to do anything that violates the parameters of his humanity that is situated in a particular culture within space and time. Further, the pocketing of his divine knowledge means that his experiential learning is real and that he is not a God pretending to be a human being. Both elements of his being are sustained although the tension would precipitate much confusion and debate in the Church.

More problematical is the fact that Jesus Christ is the source for all holiness. How can he possibly grow in grace? Again, looking at the rest of us, something of the solution emerges. When an infant is baptized it can be said that the holiest person in that family household is that child. Like Jesus, we get older, are instructed in the ways of our faith and we mature. We begin to manifest the fruits of faith and realize the graces received in the sacrament. Similarly, our Lord is the living sacrament and uncreated grace starting in the womb of Mary. Unlike us he will never forfeit or blemish his holiness through sin. His trajectory or life in holiness is perfect while ours will know detours with needed repentance and God’s mercy along the way.

Jesus always sees the heavenly Father (the beatific vision). As a child in the womb, as a baby in the manger, indeed, throughout his whole life there was never any confusion in his mind between his foster father Joseph and God the Father. It was in this sense that there was no ignorance or confusion in Christ.

Our Lord will realize before men who he is and why he has come into the world. His learning will amaze listeners and they will wonder where he received it. His presence will exude a welcoming and enriching grace that will attract many to him. The transition is from his hidden life as the son of Joseph and Mary to his public life as the Son of God come to save us. His ministry begins when he is thirty years old, not when he immediately emerges from the womb. It is fitting that he is like us in all things except sin. He knows what it is to grow up in a human family. He is one of us although he is also the second person of the Trinity, the one true God.

The Church teaches that the human and divine natures of Christ are perfectly joined in a hypostatic union (in one divine personhood). Jesus is both God and man, but he is a divine and NOT a human person. This is still the case— the incarnate Christ in heaven is forever God and man. What Christ is by way of identity, we can share by the indwelling of grace by which we as human persons are remade into the likeness of Christ by the intervention of the Holy Spirit.

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Our Adversary the Devil

Posted on March 26, 2024 by Father Joe

I recall from my days as a seminarian, working in the campus library to make money to pay for my books, there was one student at the tables about whom there were nervous whispers. He stayed to himself and had piles of books at his workstation about devils and demonic possession. At one time such works were cordoned off in the Forbidden Books section. Maybe it was a good idea because this young man was obsessed about the subject. His proper studies suffered due to the long hours he spent researching this dark topic. I am not even sure he ever graduated. It took over his life.

That is the danger in discussing fallen angels and the devil. There is a peculiar attraction about the matter. I suspect that is why it is so frequently the theme of fanciful books and movies. It gives a terrifying thrill. As with an amusement ride, it feels dangerous but there is the presumption of safety— why? I suspect it is because many do not have any credible faith and so the subject is treated as fiction. The devil is reduced to a caricature. Many of the emerging satanist clubs are populated not by religious devil worshipers but by atheists who campaign against theism with parodies and mockery. But if the devil and hell are real, then they are in for the shock of their lives— and it will be no joke.

The issue here is not purely psychological. As a Christian I believe that we battle not only evil men but invisible powers and principalities. The devil and his minions are real and while they are diminutive and weak compared to the power of Christ, they can still exert a dreadful influence upon souls. More than the comical devil on one shoulder and an angel on the other, Satan can corrupt a person through the openings made by malice and human weakness. More prevalent than outright possession are the phenomena of obsession and oppression. Indeed, they are arguably more insidious as they seduce the human will and lead victims into mortal sin. The devil can also numb the conscience to moral truths, as with matters of bigotry or threats to the sanctity of life.

The Lord’s Prayer is evidence of how serious this matter is. The oration literally asserts “deliver us from the evil one.” The serpent or devil that tempted Adam and Eve also tempted Christ in the desert. Of course, our new Adam prevailed. Unfortunately, we often play the part of Judas. We are easily swayed by the world, the flesh and the devil.

The name given to the devil is Lucifer which means “light bearer.” Compared to Jesus as the Light of the World, the devil is a false light. He initiates the angelic rebellion, and he is the chief of the demons that plot the damnation of souls. Given the mystery of Christ’s redemptive work on the Cross, the devil has lost the spiritual war. Nevertheless, Satan fights skirmishes over individual souls. The fallen angels were created as good by God, but their fall recast them as demons. Their decisive choice allows for no repentance or reconciliation. They are cast into hell. Indeed, one might say that they are hell or carry hell with them wherever they go. Hell is more than fire. The greatest pain of perdition is the alienation from God and from saving grace. The devil was ranked among the highest angels, a Cherubim or maybe even a Seraphim. We read in Isaiah 14:12: “How you have fallen from the heavens, O Morning Star, son of the dawn! How you have been cut down to the earth, you who conquered nations!”

Demons may cause grave spiritual harm, or if permitted by God, even hurt to the bodies of men and women. The story of Job cannot be written off as merely literary fiction. It speaks to both the wounded human condition and to our chief adversary that propelled humanity on this dreadful trajectory. Jesus performed several exorcisms and gave the ministers of his Church authority over unclean spirits. Today we often recite after Mass, the Prayer to St. Michael against the devil. We are also urged to recite deliverance prayers and to avoid those things that can lead to demonic infestation such as vengeance, the occult and lewdness. Pornography is often employed by traditional devil worship. The devil delights in anything that impugns the dignity of God or our own persons. Demons exert various levels of bondage: obsession, oppression, and possession. The greatest tool we have against demonic influence are the sacraments, particularly the Eucharist and the sacrament of penance.

Demonic “oppression” is what it says, literally a pressing down or weighing upon a person. Such an attack from the outside can target anyone, even the most fervent Christian. Often the situation we face is used against us— moral persecution, natural calamity, indebtedness and poverty, hunger, sickness, etc. We are tempted to despair or to do something rash. A person may be in a dark mood that evades shaking off. Another may experience an inexplicable fearfulness— uncomfortable around a person, place, or thing. Some even suffer physical ailments for which no one can find a natural cause.

Demonic “obsession” is a form of subtle mind control wherein one becomes mentally drawn or addicted to evil. There is an attraction to the things of sin and an aversion to elements of faith or holiness. Just the mention of Jesus’ name can sometimes send such victims into a rage. I have often wondered if this might be a reason why vulgar songs, slasher films and other questionable media become so popular, especially with the youth. There is a level of deception in this, with sufferers thinking such preoccupations are neutral or not offensive. Indeed, some will wrongly equate evil with the will of God. This trespasses into blasphemy against the Spirit of God. Sexual sins are readily excused or even justified. Christians with traditional values or beliefs are mocked. Compromises are made about prayer and worship that do not serve the purpose of growing in holiness. Bible reading and prayer is neglected. Anxiety replaces trusting the Lord. Instead of centering one’s life upon Christ, the obsession is about the devil and the many supernatural ways he interacts in people’s lives. Even the rash of exorcism books by Christian authors might be dangerous to such people as they are overly enamored by the topic. The kids into goth styles and vampire fantasies might be another manifestation of obsession. The darkness saturates where there should be light. New Age religion and occult practices often reflect the intervention of the demonic into people’s minds and hearts.

Demonic “possession” is the most feared, although it can signify the least human volition or control of the three afflictions. While something of the occult like a Ouija board, a séance or tarot cards might initiate a series of events leading to possession; once it begins, the person becomes like a puppet on a string. Habitual sin, particularly deadly sin, can be a window to the demonic, as well. Possession is only a hop and a skip away from allowing oneself to be a slave to sin. The devil moves in and takes control of the will. It is a dangerous situation.

A priest must be given episcopal approval to perform an exorcism. Often such efforts take place in hospitals because the demon will fight to remain and may hurt or even try to kill the possessed person. The exorcist must be in a state of grace, himself. The devil will lie and try to frighten those who oppose its presence. Sometimes the exorcist gets hurt. There are various signs to be observed in the discerning of spirits. The exorcist can ask questions but should avoid general conversation with the spiritual invader. The devil will lie. The demon will sometimes show a knowledge of languages, like Latin, Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. Often demons speak in a shrill sing-song voice, accenting the wrong words. This is often a give-away that the demon and not the human demoniac is talking. Just like artificial intelligence engines on the phone or internet, you can often tell that the speaker is not human. It does not sound right. The devil cannot tell the future, but he is a good guesser and can read into situations and fool his listeners. He can learn a great deal by watching. He cannot read one’s mind unless one invites him to do so. There may be supernatural manifestations like objects apparently moving of their own accord. Demons in possessions often seem bestial (a sign of their degradation). The exorcist can ask the name and number of the demons but always remembering that demons are deceptive. No bargains can be made. The Church’s prayers deliberately insult the devil. He is commanded to leave. Once liberated, the possessed person should embrace faith, to help forestall the possibility of a relapse. The devil loves a spiritual vacuum. By contrast, if one is filled with the presence and grace of God, the demon will shy away from setting up a nest in that person. The exorcist invokes the saving name of Jesus and the communion of the saints in administering an exorcism.

Despite the naysayers, the devil is real and so is hell. But the devil is a creature, a fallen angel. The true power remains with God. If we walk with Christ, the devil will fear both the Lord and us.

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The Truth about Angels

Posted on March 24, 2024 by Father Joe

There are so many misconceptions about angels. Many imagine they are simply human souls that have been rewarded with wings in the afterlife. This is not the case. Many have their religious formation from Hollywood and not from the source that is truly holy. Angels like us are “persons” with will and intellect. They are both good and bad. However, other than that, they are utterly alien to humanity. They are purely spiritual entities without bodies and thus they do not reproduce, do not age and cannot die. We often fantasize about them with flowing robes, wings, and halos. But in truth they look like nothing at all. If God should allow them, they can appear before men, but only as phantasms or caricatures of human beings. Beneath the appearances, they are something utterly beyond our comprehension. The good angels obey and will never tarry to answer God’s summons. They adore the Lord as a host or angelic choir. They love God and they love us. While they are not human, they are counted among the saints of heaven. They intercede and pray for us. The bad angels turned from God. Unlike mortal men this rebellion has permanently misaligned their orientation. The West, unlike certain Eastern churches, does not believe that angels can repent and return to God’s good favor. Demons will always be demons. They may know an intellectual life with the other damned of hell, but they have forever forfeited grace. Where there should be love there is hatred or indifference. At death the souls of the departed are also fixed, either orientated toward God or away from him. It is said that as many as a third of the angels rebelled against God. Many of the ancient Church fathers thought that their fall was due to a repudiation of the providential incarnation. Unlike the angels of the nativity, they had refused to bend the knee to the Christ Child. The good angels always adore the Lord and praise the godhead as Holy, Holy, Holy.

As spiritual and not material beings, the angels know duration but not time as we do. They have no gender. They do not have our five physical senses. They do possess angelic powers. However, as “persons” they are aware, can know and love and choose. All the angels that would ever exist were created in the same moment. This is contrasted to human beings who are created throughout time. However, at the end of the world, our numbers will also be fixed.

The word “angel” means messenger and they are periodically sent by God in the history of salvation. Note what is said in the universal catechism.

CCC 332 – Angels have been present since creation and throughout the history of salvation, announcing this salvation from afar or near and serving the accomplishment of the divine plan: they closed the earthly paradise; protected Lot; saved Hagar and her child; stayed Abraham’s hand; communicated the law by their ministry; led the People of God; announced births and callings; and assisted the prophets, just to cite a few examples. Finally, the angel Gabriel announced the birth of the Precursor and that of Jesus himself.

CCC 333 – From the Incarnation to the Ascension, the life of the Word incarnate is surrounded by the adoration and service of angels. When God “brings the firstborn into the world, he says: ‘Let all God’s angels worship him.’” Their song of praise at the birth of Christ has not ceased resounding in the Church’s praise: “Glory to God in the highest!” They protect Jesus in his infancy, serve him in the desert, strengthen him in his agony in the garden, when he could have been saved by them from the hands of his enemies as Israel had been. Again, it is the angels who “evangelize” by proclaiming the Good News of Christ’s Incarnation and Resurrection. They will be present at Christ’s return, which they will announce, to serve at his judgment.

Given the identity of Jesus as God’s only Son and the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity, the angels are preoccupied with Christ— announcing his birth with the hymn of heaven, ministering to him after his temptation scene with the devil, and giving him consolation in Gethsemane before the ordeal of his betrayal and passion. Angels are also heralded to accompany the risen Christ on the day of judgment. They are imaged as harvesters of souls. Similarly, we are informed that angels can minister to us (Hebrews 1:14) and function as special guardians (Matthew 18:10). The Roman Canon of the Mass even speaks of an angel that takes the oblation of the Eucharist to the heavenly Father.

While angels belong to the supernatural realm, they are limited by their nature to angelic power and to whatever divine grace allows for them. Just as we can make things, only God can create from nothing. Similarly, neither angels nor demons (fallen angels) can truly create, as this requires infinite power. New Age religion erroneously corrupts this understanding by having its adherents praying to angels as if they were deities. Such an angelology is an utterly offensive idolatry as it seeks through superstition to usurp divine sovereignty.

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Dealing with the Mystery of Death

Posted on March 19, 2024 by Father Joe

There is something about our nature that instinctively resists death and finds the notion repugnant. Many are fearful of death. Others forestall it through positive eating and drinking habits, exercise and medical intervention. Despite all the talk about quality of life and growing advocacy for euthanasia, we all know of heroic souls who cling at great physical and mental cost to every breath and heartbeat remaining to them. Indeed, although finding ourselves in a culture of death that excuses the termination of millions of unborn children, we are self-seeking and defiant in defending our own lives. Celebrities are infamous for plastic surgeries, hair dyes, and body augmentation— all to at least feign youthfulness and vigor. We appreciate all-to-well that we are on a trajectory with the Grim Reaper. Aging, ailment, and accident are the “Three A’s” about which we are wary. Advancing years bring us ever closer to our time of departure from this world. However, if a passage of the years offers a period of preparation for the inevitable; disease and accident are a lot less forgiving. Disease is the handmaid to aging. Accident is the worst as even the most robust and healthy can be quickly taken out— here one moment and suddenly gone the next. Modern people are very uncomfortable with death. Notice that we dress up and paint the dead in caskets as if they were alive. The preference for cremation removes the body entirely from the funeral scenario. The so-called ashes are a token of a life, remembered in photos, but increasingly even without a formal grave. Traditional Christian sensibilities insist upon a grave or place of internment for ashes— why? It is because we are a people of faith who employ sacraments and sacramentals. When we remember those who have passed, it is always with the accompanying hope that the beloved dead are alive in the Lord. The “sacramental” gives us something visible or tangible to grasp for that, which is in truth, unseen and beyond our senses. It is no denial of reality or an escape into the fanciful. But we prefer to believe that we exist for a reason and that we do not live and die in vain. Those who deny the existence of God and life after death can only find comfort in a nostalgic remembrance. It is sad because the person recalled is no more. When the few remaining who know the deceased should die or suffer from Alzheimer’s, then the remnants of the dead become no more than tattered photographs of ghosts without names or stories. The Gospel looks to Jesus and how he transforms the mystery of death. Indeed, at Mass we remember Christ in an “anamnesis” that makes present the one remembered. We are to similarly ponder the dead but remembering them as alive and as still loving and praying for us. The gravity moves from “us remembering” to the fact that “God remembers” and never forgets us.

We often weep when friends and families die. We are touched by death while still living in this world because the deceased remain a part of us. Our stories are interwoven and there are ties that remain unbroken, even by death. Often, we hear mourners cry things like, “Why O Lord, why did he have to die? Lord, could you not have taken me, instead? How could you have let this happen?” The question, “Why do human beings die?” is an important one. We want to live. We might not want to be vampires, but the prospect of eternal life is appealing. Those who study history often wish they could have lived in the past. Those who delight in science fiction want to see the future. Many in their preoccupation with collecting things and advancing their wealth live as if they will be around forever. But such is a lie.

Then he told them a parable. “There was a rich man whose land produced a bountiful harvest. He asked himself, ‘What shall I do, for I do not have space to store my harvest?’ And he said, ‘This is what I shall do: I shall tear down my barns and build larger ones. There I shall store all my grain and other goods and I shall say to myself, “Now as for you, you have so many good things stored up for many years, rest, eat, drink, be merry!”’ But God said to him, ‘You fool, this night your life will be demanded of you; and the things you have prepared, to whom will they belong?’ Thus will it be for the one who stores up treasure for himself but is not rich in what matters to God.” (Luke 12:16-21)

As in the parable, when death comes, to whom will their piled-up bounty go?

Despite the harsh reality of death as the great equalizer, coming to the rich and poor alike, we have an intuition that dying has been interjected into the human equation. It is not the way things are supposed to be. The serpent in Genesis 2:17 urges disobedience to God, discounting the consequence of death for forbidden knowledge. This so-called knowledge is “to know sin” and such changes the agent, clipping the relationship with God and a vital connection with the one who is the source of life. Why do all men die? The answer is simple and terrible— despite our abhorrence of death, we have chosen it. Not long after the fall, one brother would kill another. Rebellion against God brings about death, indeed, more than this, it invites murder. The sin of Adam and Even was the signing of warrants against them. A bounty was placed upon their heads and those of their children. We are all murderers. This truth is fully realized in the passion and death of Christ. We all have blood on our hands. And yet, the bounty is paid not by our deaths but by the sacrifice of our Lord.

Sin and death enter the world through Adam. The new Adam or Christ brings forth grace and life.

For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead came also through a human being. For just as in Adam all die, so too in Christ shall all be brought to life . . . (1 Corinthians 15: 21-22).

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What We Have Lost

Posted on March 18, 2024 by Father Joe

Death enters the world due to sin. Regardless of whether there was spontaneous creation or development of species as through evolution, the Church teaches that death enters the world because of sin. Had Adam and Eve remained faithful, our first parents would either have never known death or it would have been as merely opening a door and walking from one room to another. Human rebellion would cost us preternatural gifts and usher forth suffering, sickness and dying. It is a crucial hallmark of Christian anthropology, that these dark mysteries are not the result of the divine active will, but rather of his passive will— God makes space for the misuse of human freedom. While he does not preserve us from the consequences of sin, he does not forget us and makes a promise of redemption.

After the fall, our first parents hide themselves in shame of their nakedness. They forfeit their profound union with God. An awareness that raised them ahead of all other creatures of material creation was accompanied by a duty or responsibility to honor the Almighty. However, their love and fidelity fall short. Eve falls to the serpent and Adam is emasculated in complying with the demand of Eve. They would remain stewards of creation but as deeply flawed sentinels in a now broken world. The sin of our first parents brings about a woundedness to all creation. The bridge collapses between heaven and earth. It would only be in Christ our “pontifex” that the bridge would be restored, albeit in the form of a cross. While hope remains, our pilgrimage would henceforth include struggle and suffering. The actions of Adam and Eve do not mean merely death to a few but death to many. As in any mortal sin, they are stripped of sanctifying grace. This is still how we enter the world and why faith and baptism are so essential. Another lesson learned is that just as the cost of original sin is passed down to every child of humanity save Mary; all sin, even the most personal and hidden, touches others because we then cannot witness as the saints we should be. Indeed, one of the imperatives for the sacrament of penance is that we might be healed as members of the mystical body, the Church. The sin of any one of us is a cause of diminishment for all. We are called not simply as individuals but as a new People of God or New Israel.

Compounding the gravity of Adam and Eve’s rebellion is that within their intense intimacy with God comes a heightened awareness of intellect, sometimes referred to as infused science. Not only have we lost this supernatural gift, but today many seem to possess only a vague appreciation of human nature and our true place in the world. Consciences are numbed to the truth about the sanctity of human life and the dignity of persons— divine light is displaced by a satanic darkness. Every school kid is aware of this loss because learning often does not come quickly and requires constant study and repetition to store information in memory. What should be easy becomes difficult or arduous.

Original sin also strips away our sense of integrity, making us capricious and prone to the urging of concupiscence. It is hard to do the good and easy to do the bad. The symphony of harmony in us and in creation is disrupted. The fruitful blessings of the garden would be traded for the struggle of the arid wastes— men would toil for their food and women would know the pains of childbirth.

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