THE REST OF GOD IN THE FLESH

Holy Saturday/2024

Reflection from Friar Nicholas Okeke, OP

Theme: The Rest of God in the Flesh

The earth is quiet today because God has fallen asleep in the flesh. The death of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Incarnate Word, is the rest of God in human flesh. The human death of the Son of Man, for the love of us, gives us a proper understanding of what it means for God to rest after work. The sacred author used this expression to explain the cessation of the creative activities of God in the book of Genesis. Application of this expression to God can cause a misunderstanding because God is a Spirit and does not rest as we understand rest applicable to man. One can say that God rested because he brought a particular sequence of creative activities to its term. This sequence of activities commenced with the creation and spans through salvation history, as the different readings selected for Easter vigil illustrate. We must not understand the rest of God in an absolute sense, for there is nothing like that. This meaning is clear from our Lord’s statement to the Jews when he healed the man born blind in John 5:17. “My Father still goes on working, and I am at work, too.” It is in this sense that we consider the death of the Son of Man as the rest of God. His death in flesh brought to an end a sequence of divine activities of the Eternal Word in, and through, the human flesh he assumed to an end. We can, therefore, say that God rested in his human body but not in his human nature, for he used his human nature to preach to the departed souls in Hades.

Our consideration of the rest of the Lord in the human body leads us to look at the meaning of physical death. As we have explained when we say that God rested, it does not mean in an absolute sense but in a qualified sense. In this case, that God rested in human flesh properly means that the Incarnate Word ceased or ended his human activities in the body when he died on the cross of Calvary. Thus, we heard him cry: ‘It is finished.’ That is, he finished the work he came to do at the bidding of his Father, or in obedience to the Father, at the point of his death on the cross. But we must not understand this to mean that he ceased working for the salvation of his brethren spiritually. St. Peter informed us that another preaching commenced at his death; he went down to the spiritual realm, or Hades, to preach to the spirits of his brothers and sisters in prison there. “In the body he was put to death, in the spirit he was raised to life, and, in the spirit, he went to preach to the spirits in prison.” Though he rested in the body at his death, he did not cease preaching in the spirit, which is part of the human nature he assumed. He continued his work of preaching but now to the spirits and in a spiritual way, not involving time and space, but pure illumination and their corresponding assent of faith or refusal to believe.

These lead us to consider the nature of their imprisonment and their freedom or entrance into rest. There are two groups of souls awaiting the rest of God in the human body: First, the just souls who believed in the word of God during their mortal life, who are justified by their faith. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are examples of those in this group. These are not in prison but waiting in Limbo. They awaited the entrance of the Saviour into glory, which is his Godhead. The Eternal Word is the rest of the human nature he assumed and the rest of all who believe in him in all the ages. Matthew described what happened when he slept in the flesh: “Suddenly, the veil of the Sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom, the earth quaked, the rocks were split, the tombs opened and the bodies of many holy people rose from the dead, and these, after his resurrection, came out of the tombs, entered the holy city and appeared to a number of people.” Second, those who failed to believe in the word of God or did not hear the word of God expressly preached to them and died in their sin. These are in Hades because of their sins. He preached to this group at his death. The blood of Jesus is justification and atonement for sin to these two groups. It is justification for the just who were faithful but awaiting perfection, and atonement and salvation for those who received another opportunity to make an act of faith in his saving life and death.

Ultimately, God is Rest in an absolute sense, for he does not work with time and space but remains the same for all eternity. The creatures rest in the knowledge and love of the Godhead. Thus, as God is said to work when he calls his creatures into existence, he is said to rest when he brings creatures to their end, that is, himself. God is said to be at work relatively when he works in his creatures, moving them to their proper end, and he is said to rest in a relative sense when they attain their proper ends. On the other hand, creatures work properly and absolutely when they work for their proper ends and rest properly and absolutely when they attain their proper ends in God. Applying this understanding to the Saviour’s death, we can say that God rested when he slept in the human nature he assumed. His death on the cross accomplished the redemptive activities of the Eternal Word of God through the ages geared towards making man like God. Man objectively attained his goal, which is to know and love God. Thus, he finished the work indeed at his death. The end of the mortal of Jesus is the beginning of the spiritual life (heaven) for man. Hence, he will rise a different being, a man made in the likeness of God. Only those who believe in the word of God will become like this man of heaven because the word of God is the Sabbath of man, just as the re-possession of his Eternal Word after creation is the rest of the Father.

Let us pray: Grant us, merciful Father, the grace to truly believe in the redemptive life and death of your Son Jesus Christ, that we may enter into his heavenly rest.