This weekend marked the
celebration of All Saints and All Souls Days, following Halloween (Hallowed
Eve) on the Friday before. Scripture
readings for Saturday and Sunday boldly proclaim the hope we share because of
our faith. Here are just a few excerpts
from the past two days:
·
“I had a
vision of a great multitude, which no one could count, from every nation, race,
people and tongue. They stood before the
throne and before the Lamb…” (Rev 7:4)
·
“Beloved, we
are God’s children now; what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We do know that when it is revealed we shall
be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” (1 John 3:3)
·
“Blessed are
the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 5:2)
·
“The souls
of the just are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them. They seemed in the view of the foolish to be
dead; and their passing away was thought an affliction and their going forth
from us, utter destruction. But they are
in peace. For… their hope is full of
immortality; “ (Wisdom 3:1-3)
·
“Brothers
and sisters, Hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured
into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us. (Romans
5:5)
·
“Just as
Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live
in newness of life. For if we have grown
into union with him through a death like His, we shall also be united with him
in the resurrection. If, then, we have
died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.” (Romans 6:4-5,7)
The message here, repeated
over and over, is that death is not the end of our lives, but only the
beginning of our eternal life in the loving Presence of God. This is why we celebrate the saints and all
those who have gone before us in life.
We believe that they are still very much alive, living an existence no
longer constrained by the limits of time and space. This is the message of the gospel; this is
the promise of salvation; this is our eternal destiny, if only we believe and
abide in the love of Christ Jesus. This is the culture of life, the culture
that believes in the absolute dignity of every human life, not just because of
our human bodies, but because each of us is a spiritual being who happens to be
living in a human body for the time being.
Ironically, the secular
culture, the culture of death, seems lately to be enamored with the idea of
life after death, but in a dark and foreboding way. Instead of depicting life after death as
marked by a release from the pains and suffering endured in our humanity, it portrays
life after death as painful and tormented, as in the form of zombies, vampires,
or werewolves who are murderous and demonic.
Could it be that fascination with these perversions of life after death
are a byproduct of the mindset that refuses to respect human dignity; one that
views inconvenient babies as disposable, and fails to see value in the lives of
the elderly if their quality of life is judged to be unacceptable? Ezekiel Emmanuel, the principle architect of
the Obamacare legislation, recently commented that he does not want to live
past 75, and that the elderly should not have access to expensive
life-extending medical treatment. Supreme
Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, in a recent magazine interview, explained Roe v. Wade in terms of population
control, “particularly growth in populations that we don’t want to have too
many of.” Those are her exact words. Did
she mean minorities; or the poor in general?
She went on to state that not enough resources were being spent on
abortions for the poor. In her view, we
don’t kill enough babies, notwithstanding the dire consequences of our
declining birth rates on tax revenue and the economy at large.
Is this the way our society
and culture is trending? Are we becoming
a people devoid of hope? In the run up
to this week’s mid-term election, Nancy Pelosi screeched that if the
Republicans win a majority in the Senate, “It will be the end of civilization
as we know it.” By that did she mean the
culture of death? Is she worried that
all the liberal and progressive advances made by Democrats in the past 6 years
will be unraveled? Might the Republicans
stop our government from giving $600 million a year to Planned Parenthood, and
billions more through the abortions funded by Obamacare insurance plans whose
premiums are paid in part with government subsidies? Might the evil Republicans actually do
something to curb our deficit spending?
Despite all the angst over
this election, I doubt much will change.
Even if the Republicans have an overwhelming victory, our lame duck
president will veto any efforts to unravel Obamacare, the Dodd-Frank banking
debacle, or the run-away EPA. President
Obama and his cabinet minions will still be writing administrative laws further
obfuscating healthcare, banking, environmental issues, and of course,
immigration. There’s probably little the
Republicans can do to slow down this train wreck that Nancy Pelosi seems to
think is the pinnacle of civilization.
As depressing as all this may
sound, the bottom line is that it all matters very little in the long run, the
long run being eternal life. Shakespeare,
who many think was a closet Catholic, put it this way: “This life, which has been the tomb of his
virtue and his honor, is but a walking shadow; a poor player that struts and
frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more: it is a tale told by
an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” (Macbeth Act 5, Scene 5) Life on this earth is no more than a trifle
in time, compared to timeless infinity. The
deepest longings of the human heart cannot be satisfied here on earth. No matter what we have, or how much of it we
are able to grasp, we always want more.
What will satisfy our longing?
Simply put: Everything. We are
spiritual beings, children of God, with desires rooted in the Infinity that is
God, and therefore nothing finite will ever satisfy us. Only in death will we find what we desire
most dearly: Infinite Love, in which we already participate, but only in our
currently limited capacity. More on that next week…
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