June 28, 2015
Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
First Reading: Wisdom 1:13-15; 2:23-24
http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/062815.cfm
“I was not; I was; I am not; I care not.” Such is the translation of the common Epicurean epitaph from ancient Rome: Non fui, fui, non sum, non curo. Somehow, I think this line captures many people’s attitudes toward death today. It is easy to fall in to viewing death lightly as a merely natural event after which the body decays and turns to dust. Yet every time someone dies, there is a voice inside us shouting, “That’s not right!” Death is not supposed to be the end.
Why the Reminder?
This Sunday’s first reading grabs two different short passages from the beginning of the Book of Wisdom, one of the deuterocanonical books included in Catholic Bibles, but not Protestant ones. From these six verses, it is hard to get a sense of the surrounding passages. But this reminder about the significance and origin of death comes in the midst of a moral exhortation. The author warns us, “Do not invite death by the error of your life” (Wis 1:12 RSV). After the first excerpt, the text goes on to recount the problem with people who summon death by their deeds and actually make a covenant with it (1:16). Everything we do either orients us toward death or toward life, and this reminder about the nature of death points us in the right direction.
Is Life an Accident?
The author quotes the false reasoning of those who have made a covenant with death:
Short and sorrowful is our life,
and there is no remedy when a man comes to his end,
and no one has been known to return from Hades.
Because we were born by mere chance,
and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been;
because the breath in our nostrils is smoke,
and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts. (Wis 2:1-2 RSV)
These ancient unbelievers formulate their view of life and death in a way that sounds so much like what we hear today—that whatever we call the “soul” is really just a chance outcome of the conglomeration of molecules and cells of which our bodies are composed, that we are just like other animals, that no one can come back from death. Yet these are lies.
God’s Design
God built the universe and put us here by design. Our birth, our arrival here on earth is no random chance event, but foreseen by the omniscient God from all eternity. Life is not an accident. Not only that, but we will live longer than the whole of creation that surrounds us. And we know that in fact someone has come back from Hades and we too will share in his resurrection. (In fact, this reading is coupled with the gospel reading of Jesus raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead.) The breath in our nostrils is no smoke, but the very breath of God (Gen 2:7).
The Origin of Death
The false view of life leads to death. If our life is a mere accident, then it would follow that our actions have little consequence, that there is no overall meaning to the story of life. But Wisdom insists that life does have a purpose and it is death that was not intended, not designed. Death was only a consequence of “the devil’s envy” (Wis 2:24 RSV). God created the world to be good and life-promoting. Wisdom tells us that “there is no destructive poison” in creation (2:23). Now this might be a bit of over-statement for we can think of many poisonous things in nature, but creation used rightly does not poison us, but sustains us. The point is, “God did not make death” (1:13), but he did make life.
Immortality
According to Wisdom, God actually planned for immortality. That’s the glue that holds our two short passages together. In 1:15, “righteousness is immortal.” And in 2:23, “God created man for incorruption.” God did not create us only to destroy us. He created us to live forever with him as “the image of his own eternity” (2:23). Yet death arrived all the same, through human failing, not through God’s design. Immortality, not death, is the real destiny of humanity.
It is hard to think about death, yet it is a time-honored part of Christian mysticism (which is why paintings of mystics often include a skull near the saint). Meditating on our own death, what it means, how it changes us, whether it is a dead-end or a doorway, will help us keep a sober view of our own role on this earth. While we can be confident in Christ that we will share in his resurrection victory and join him in eternity, we want to be cautious. Heeding Wisdom’s advice to engage in the wise actions that lead to life and not the death-oriented actions of the ungodly will help us obtain our goal. Those Epicureans might end up caring after all!
image: Robert Hoetink / Shutterstock.com
