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March 26, 2023: Through the Power of God the Laws of Nature Do Not Apply
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Seriously, who can speak and try to perform the language of God and be taken seriously? I can’t think of a single person. I refer not to the language Jesus speaks in the Gospels such as, “Love the Lord your God with whole heart, soul, mind, and being. And love your neighbor as yourself.” This sort of language that God speaks is for our direction in life. A direction that will lead us closer to our central purpose here, which is to love God and neighbor, making the world a much better place by doing so. These words are applicable language that is in fact a teaching, a commandment that is not burdensome, that, by heeding such words of our Lord, our direction is straight through the narrow gate that leads to the joys of heaven.
Or, even the livable language by Jesus, spoken on a mountain, teaching us who in fact is blessed. We say all the time how so many people are blessed in material ways; with money, with a house at the ocean, with a healthy family, with a dog who doesn’t bite, except a burglar. And it’s true; we find out we are blessed in countless ways if we take the time to consider and count the ways. There is no shortage of blessings in this broken world. But these types of blessings are what Jesus does not refer to on the mountain of beatitudes. He leaves out all the material blessings as part of his great teaching. Which is rather interesting, because we as a society tend to heavily favor material blessings as our most important blessings, when they are not. At least not to the Lord.
Instead, what Jesus considers to be true blessings is when a person is poor in spirit; or when one is a peacemaker; or a person who shows mercy where needed; or a person who is clean of heart in a culture of very hard profanation; or someone who is meek rather than overtaking a conversation for the purpose of shutting down someone else, or feels the need to dominate verbally; or even someone who is persecuted for the name of Jesus because they hold fast to the truth of what he has given to us through the Apostles rather than diving into the world of excuses and disobedience. Much of the language of Jesus in the Gospels, its purpose is for application in our lives so that we may love one another rather than abhor one another, helping each other to heaven.
But some language of God, notably language found in the Old Testament, is language that we are to hear and understand, but doing so without the possibility of actually carrying it out in our lives. If anything, we are subjects to the language, rather than doers of it. We have such language in this week’s first reading that accompanies the Gospel story of the raising of Lazarus. From the Old Testament Book of the Prophet Ezekiel, we hear proclaimed by our Lector, “Thus says the Lord God: O my people, I will open your graves and have you rise from them.”
Now, if Fr. Riley spoke these same words to you that God spoke to the Israelites, would I be taken seriously? Am I, or any other mere mortal, capable of opening your grave one day and have you rise from it? Am I, or any other human being, capable of bringing and rattling your bones back together in perfect sequence, not putting your foot where your arm should be, take you by the hand, and bring you up out of your perch six feet below the earth so you can rejoice forever with your newfound, everlasting life? I think not! Can I, or any super-talented person from any walk of life, explode all the graves throughout the world in the history of the world, on the land, in the sea, and in the skies, and transform those graves into places of life rather than death? Of course not! Can yours truly, or any other living being who is not God, raise a person’s body from their grave without being called a grave-robber? Some crazy people tried to do this to Abraham Lincoln not long after he was buried in Springfield, Ill. Please.
This is something God not only would actually say and promise, but can and will in reality make happen. For it is only through the power of God that the laws of nature do not apply. We see this type of language in today’s second reading also from Paul’s Letter to the Romans, another reading that points to the Gospel of Lazarus raised from his tomb. Paul writes, “If the Spirit of the One who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, the One who raised Christ from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also, through his Spirit dwelling in you”
In the world of science, this type of language is beyond mind-boggling. It is actually preposterous, giving life to dead bodies through the Spirit dwelling in us. Science is concerned with proof, not faith or belief, although the two disciplines - science and religion, or faith and reason - complement each other. St. John Paul II wrote an encyclical on this topic called Fides Et Ratio, translated On the Relationship Between Faith and Reason. It makes for the best reading on these two topics that are not at odds, as some folks make them out to be, but topics given to humanity from the one and same God that reach their height of understanding when they work together.
Regarding the words of St. Paul noted above from his Romans letter, we return to similar language expressed in Ezekiel. It’s the language of raising and being raised. Meaning, our bodies reunited with our souls forever. That through the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit who raised Jesus from his tomb on the first Easter morning, this same Spirit best known as Holy, will do the same for us that was done for Jesus in Jerusalem. We have many images of the Holy Spirit in our Catholic faith, two of the most prominent ones being a dove and fire. What happened in Jerusalem at the borrowed tomb of Jesus owned by Joseph of Arimathea was the most intense fire God has favored us with when the Holy Spirit, one with Jesus, reentered the sacred body of Christ in a flash, fulfilling the promise our Lord made to his Apostles of being raised on the third day. Of all the works of the Holy Spirit, this is by far number one. It is an event, a reality, a happening in human history that only God could bring about. If we tried this sort of stuff, like a few crazies have attempted, we would be laughed at for the rest of our lives. It would result in the worst sort of failure, as it should.
St. Paul, like Ezekiel, allows us the important understanding that we as human beings are limited in means when it comes to the reality of death and being raised from it. In fact, we have zero capacity to make it a reality. As we shoot for the stars in different areas of human life, in some cases believing we can reach a pinnacle in disciplines like science or faith, or even medicine, God has a way of quite humbly reminding us of how far we fall short in those parts of life that God alone can bring about. I have no issue with “shooting for the stars” for the purpose of advancing our knowledge in certain areas that assist our lives for the better. At some point, however, as we shoot for the stars, we will hit a star that brings us back to reality, reminding us that failure is part of our makeup, unlike that of God. The greater concern here would be that of humans trying to ridiculously replace the God who can return to eternal life bodies dead for centuries and millions of years. Sadly, when people attempt to replace the works of God, what results is human destruction on grand scales. This is where the sinful idea of gender ideology is presently walking with its destruction of many human bodies. Whereas God creates peace for us, we create in turn nuclear weapons, both physically and spiritually. Whereas God creates the sun, the moon, and the stars in all of their wonder, some of its wonder for our greater benefit such as warmth, we create through fear what is known today as climate change. If anyone wants to live in an area where the climate doesn’t change, then they should move to San Diego.
Back to the basics of this column: God has power with life over death, and the power to raise every person who has lived in history from the spot where they are buried, where they fell and no longer exist in any form of physicality, or any possible place connected to death. God knows the name of every person who has lived. Even those who never received names. He gave them a name Himself. What this comes down to is the understanding of what Martha and Mary lacked the day Jesus showed up in the village of Bethany; that he is the resurrection and the life. Meaning, human life and death are subject to the command of his voice. If life and death hear our voice, they will laugh at us and say, “Go away. Stop joking with us. We don’t listen to your little voices.” But when the Big Voice says, “I will raise you from your graves and have you rise from them,” life and death pay strict attention to the Voice of the One who created life, and allowed death to happen as the result of disobedience.
There’s a world of difference between trying to play God, and being like God. The first one is pride in its worst form, while the latter is the person who loves God and neighbor. It’s not a hard choice. At least it shouldn’t be.