To die in Life

Eternal Death
As we move towards the end of Lent, on the third Sunday, in the episode of the Samaritan woman, we learn that sin is like the kind of thirst that is quenched for a moment but then is rekindled. This is the same dynamic as addiction, a repetitive and obsessive behavior that takes away your freedom. Jesus is the living water, the water of freedom that, once drunk, quenches our thirst forever. 

On the fourth Sunday, in the episode of the healing of the blind man, we learn that sin is like darkness and Jesus is the light. Christ is the light of the world that illuminates our path, the light that leads to life, the light of faith that makes us see reality as God sees it.

In the episode of Lazarus' death, we see that sin is like death and Jesus is the resurrection. Death seems to have the meaning of a complete finality; it is the thing that conditions all things. For Jesus, who deliberately delayed his visit to Lazarus, saying that it was so that God’s glory would be manifested, death not only does not have the final word, but it exists for something greater: the manifestation of the glory of God.

In Romans 6:23, St. Paul says that the wage of sin is death. But God does not want the death of the sinner, he wants him to convert and live (Ezekiel 19:23). In fact, "Gloria Dei homo vivants" says St. Irenaeus, the greatest glory of God is Man fully alive. 

God wants us to have life, and have life in abundance. Man's life in abundance is what gives God the greatest joy, and what makes Him most unhappy is when we allow death to reign in us in any of the three dimensions: physical, psychological and spiritual.

In this exposition we deal with two concepts of death. The first, just described, is death as a consequence of sin and which leads to eternal death. Death in the positive sense is the passage to life and is therefore a temporal death.

Temporal Death
We have engraved in our minds that death happens at the end of life, but that is not true. Death happens every day and is part of life process; we have to live with it at all levels: physical, psychological and spiritual. In fact, death exists as a function of life, so it is not an end in itself: the end is always life, and death is the means to attain it. 

To be born - to grow - to reproduce - to die is the principle or rule by which every living being is governed. A human being in an adult state is made up of trillions of cells and each of these cells is, in itself, a living being. In fact, they all come from a mother cell that resulted from the union of two half-cells: the sperm and the egg. An amoeba, which lives in the non-potable waters of Africa, is considered a living being and it is made up of a single cell.

Therefore, each of the cells that make up our body is born, grows, reproduces and dies. This is how physical growth is explained. We can generalize that every 7 years we have a biologically new body, made up of cells that did not exist 7 years ago; over the course of our lives, we can say that we incarnate around 12 new bodies for a life off 85 years long. Just as a snake sheds its skin to grow, so we change our bodies for the same purpose: to grow and live. 

What is true on a physical level is also true on a psychological and spiritual level. Also, in these areas or dimensions of human life, growing and living imply dying, leaving behind things, people, realities, behaviours. 

The only cells that refuse to die, and multiply disorderly, are cancer cells. In this sense, we can be cancerous not only physically but also psychologically and spiritually when we cling like ticks to something or someone other than God.

Baptism = Passover = Death = Passage
Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. Romans 6:4

The ancient ritual of baptism, still practiced in some Christian churches, was a baptism by immersion. The neophyte was immersed in the water on one side and emerged on the other; this ritual mimicked Christ's Passover, the passage from death to life, from sin to grace, from the old man to the new man, in the image and likeness of Christ, the archetype of the new man.

This passage, this death, is a sine qua non requisite for following Christ: If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23. 

At Easter, there are those who highlight the passion, suffering and death, and there are those who emphasize the joy of the resurrection. Easter is an indivisible whole, a complete process with the two sides, like the two faces of a coin. 

There is no joy of Easter without the mortification of Lent and, just as in war the joy of victory is proportional to the ardor of the battle, the greater the Lenten mortification, the greater will be the Easter joy.

The Easters of Life
… (You must) clothe yourselves with the new self, created according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Ephesians 4:24

When I was studying theology, I had a classmate who gave up smoking every year during Lent, but went back to his habit every Easter Sunday. My father, on the other hand, stopped smoking during the Lent of his 22nd year and never did it again. 

We are called to die in life, so if for every Lent of our lives, we die to a vice, an attitude, a sin, we will reach holiness before the final death which is the passage to eternal life. Like Saint Paul, we can say:  it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 

And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20. 

So let us die to sin in order to live a new life with God and for God.

Conclusion – All the time in our body, cells die and are replaced by others. Death is the "conditio sine qua non" of physical growth, and psychological and spiritual maturity. 

Fr. Jorge Amaro, IMC