God of the living

Our God is a God of the “living”, not of the “dead”. At first glance, what Jesus says in this weeks’ Gospel may seem obvious. God is He who gives us life – He is a God who resurrects. This is true, however when Jesus says that our God is a God of the living, He is not simply referring to biological life. God gives different forms of “life”. The questions to ask is: how can we experience them all?

In order to answer this it would be interesting to make reference to an exhortation that the Pope quite recently made – Christus Vivit (translated as “Christ Lives!”). In it, the Pope addresses “young People and the entire People of God”. The document explores what it means to be young and, in doing so, Pope Francis takes great pains to emphasise that: “youth is more than simply a period of time; it is a state of mind”. One of the qualities of being young is, precisely, to be “alive”, as Christ is alive! But what does “to be alive” really mean? 

“Christ is alive and he wants you to be alive!” – is how Pope Francis begins the exhortation. It is so easy to forget that Christ is alive right now. Indeed, sometimes it is tempting to see Christ as being simply a “fine model from the distant past, a memory, as someone who saved us two thousand years ago”. This is an error all Christians are susceptible to making.  But the fact is, Christ is eternal and therefore exists at this very moment – He exists not simply in the Eucharist, but potentially (and ideally!) in our Selves too. Christ did not simply “save us” (past tense) – He “saves us” (present tense). In a sense, Jesus is the one who fills you with his grace, the one who liberates you, transforms you, heals and consoles you – in the present. Now the truth is, none of us are fully “alive”, none of us are completely “young”. Let us take a moment, therefore, to see how Christ can make us younger – how we can be more “alive”.

One of the things which make us older and hence, which make us less alive, are feelings such as “resentment, fear, doubt or failure”. These emotions rob us from our ability to trust God fully and to also love others with a free and selfless love. They weigh us down. Pope Francis tells us that whenever we feel such type of emotions, “[Christ] is always there to restore our strength and our hope”. We simply need to allow Him to work in us! We need to make the effort to be open to experiencing His love and inspiration. Inspiration and hope are quintessential to youth and to life!

Apart from this, there is also the reality of sin which chains us to our selfish selves and which closes us from grace and from God’s presence. Whenever we sin, we make our soul older and we also make ourselves less alive. In many ways, sin kills and weighs us down too (even if we don’t always realise). It blinds our vision and clouds our hope. Christ is He who frees us from the chains of sin. His mercy heals, His love fulfils. This is why Pope tells us: “keep your eyes fixed on the outstretched arms of Christ crucified, let yourself be saved over and over again. And when you go to confess your sins, believe firmly in his mercy which frees you of your guilt. Contemplate his blood poured out with such great love, and let yourself be cleansed by it. In this way, you can be reborn ever anew”. Confession is the path toward spiritual renewal!

Finally, another thing which tends to sometimes enslave us, and hence, to spiritually kill us is our possessiveness. We have a tendency to become too attached to things in the world – things such as money, power, pleasure, careers, ambitions, our environment, etc. – these things can all kill us insofar as they stop us from prioritizing God above all. They themselves are not the source of life, so whenever we attempt to seek life or fulfilment from them, we are bound to grow disappointed. Pope Francis tell us how “in the Lord’s passion we see a young man who wanted to follow Jesus, but in fear ran away naked (cf. 14:51-52); he lacked the strength to stake everything on following the Lord. Yet at the empty tomb, we see another young person, “dressed in a white tunic” (16:5), who tells the women not to be afraid and proclaims the joy of the resurrection (cf. 16:6-7)”. In order to be joyous and to proclaim joy we must first let Joy transform us. This is much easier said – but often it is a gradual journey in which we become even more open and vulnerable to our weary nature and to Christ’s presence and healing. He is with us right now. He wants to begin healing us today. 

In this light, let us take a moment to reflect upon a passage the Pope writes in Christus Vivit: 

Ask the Holy Spirit each day to help you experience anew the great message. Why not? You have nothing to lose, and he can change your life, fill it with light and lead it along a better path. He takes nothing away from you, but instead helps you to find all that you need, and in the best possible way. Do you need love? You will not find it in dissipation, using other people, or trying to be possessive or domineering. You will find it in a way that will make you genuinely happy. Are you seeking powerful emotions? You will not experience them by accumulating material objects, spending money, chasing desperately after the things of this world. They will come, and in a much more beautiful and meaningful way, if you let yourself be prompted by the Holy Spirit.
Finally, a brief word must be said as to the reason why Christ denies the reality of marriage in the after-life. This is not because marriage is not fundamental. Rather, the reason why Jesus undermines marriage in his reply to the Sadducees is because the Sadducees were a people who believed that the only way to make humanity live on is through reproduction. They therefore did not believe in any form of after-life and resurrection. Christ’s point is that our God is a God of eternal life – the after-life does exist and, therefore, marriage is not needed for the human race to not end. The source of eternal humanity is God! The Sadducees where trying to trick Jesus, but Jesus responded in a prudent and logical way. The question is: how do we ourselves respond to those who, like the Sadducees did to Jesus, question our belief as illogical or unscientific?