THE MEANING OF DEATH

WEDNESDAY, NINETEENTH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Deut 34:1-12; Ps 66:1-3,5,16-17; Mt 18:15-20

The Power of Life and Death

In our reflection on the readings today, we consider two types of death we experience as human beings and the power of God over these types of death. The reading from Deuteronomy relates how Moses, the servant of Yahweh, died. The death in focus here is the natural death, which we have all inherited from our first parents, Adam and Eve. The return of our bodies to dust is the just sentence of God following the original sin of Adam and Eve. God permitted the corruption of their bodies following their choice to experience or know death. They made this choice when they disobeyed the word of God and ate of the fruit they were told not to taste under the pain of death. God, who is merciful and just, respected the free will he gave to man by permitting them to die. Though it came as a just sentence of God, it was the consequence of their choice. All men, born of Adam and Eve, experience death in fulfilment of the word of God. Moses, the servant of Yahweh, also died in accordance with the word of God. Was it a punishment for his slight unfaithfulness to the word of God? Not at all! What we may consider the punishment for the slight unfaithfulness of Moses and Aaron is their non-entrance into the physical Promised Land. Their physical death and that of every man is an act of mercy and justice of God, who spares us unending years of toil in this vale of tears.

Now, considering the punishment, that is, not entering the Promised Land, we see also the justice and mercy of God. “The Lord said to him, ‘This is the land I swore to give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying: I will give it to your descendants. I have let you see it with your own eyes, but you shall not cross into it.’ There in the land of Moab, Moses, the servant of the Lord died as the Lord decreed.” We all die according to the decree of the Lord. The decree of the Lord is not a punishment for the faithful, but an act of mercy, by which he brings us to his rest. The physical land of Canaan was a symbol of God's rest, which is a spiritual reality we enter only through faith. Moses did not enter the sacrament of God’s rest with his people, but he entered the reality through his faithful service. Hence, the scripture qualifies him as the servant of Yahweh. He preceded the real people of God to the gate of that eternal and heavenly Jerusalem. The Lord showed us the evidence of his worthiness to enter the City at the transfiguration. The author of the Hebrews clarified the difference between the physical Promised Land and the heavenly Promised Land when he informed us, using the authority of the Psalmist, that the people of Israel did not enter the spiritual rest of God, but the sacrament of it. So, the Israelites had the sacrament without the reality of the rest of Yahweh. The reality is what faith in the word of God makes available to all of us.

The reality of the rest of God is the foundation for understanding the second type of death we mentioned. Spiritual death is a consequence of a lack of faith in God. Just as Adam and Eve chose to disobey the word of God and knew suffering, toil, and death, the rejection of the word of God sinks the human soul into spiritual darkness and death. The word of God is spirit and life; whoever rejects the word of God chooses death. The Son of God became man to save us from this horrible spiritual situation. He showed us the Father’s love and mercy for us, sinners, but we are left to make a choice of our destination. He instructs us to make every effort to save our brothers and sisters from eternal death. “If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother. If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain any charge. But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a pagan or a tax collector.” The refusal to believe is always the exercise of the sinner’s free will to choose life or death. The faithful are sacraments of Jesus Christ, personally, collectively, and communally. The refusal to listen to the word of God from a Christian, a group of Christians, and the Church, is self-condemnation. The Church, like God, keeps the door open for repentance by treating the recalcitrant as a tax collector, irrespective of the choice. She exercises the power of the keys in love. “I tell you solemnly, whatever you bind on earth shall be considered bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be considered loosed in heaven.”

Let us pray: Almighty ever-living God, whom, taught by the Holy Spirit, we dare to call our Father, bring, we pray, to perfection in our hearts the spirit of adoption as your sons and daughters, that we may merit to enter into the inheritance which you have promised. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.