The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today invite contemplation of our journey in life and reflection on death.
Life on the journey
The Book of Wisdom expresses the destiny of the righteous.
* [3:1–12] The author affirms that, for the righteous, sufferings are not punishments but purification and opportunities to show fidelity, whereas for the wicked suffering is truly a punishment.1
Psalm 23 praises the care of the Divine Shepherd.
* [Psalm 23] God’s loving care for the psalmist is portrayed under the figures of a shepherd for the flock (Ps 23:1–4) and a host’s generosity toward a guest (Ps 23:5–6). The imagery of both sections is drawn from traditions of the exodus (Is 40:11; 49:10; Jer 31:10).2
The Letter of Paul to the Romans declares how we will also live with Him.
* [6:1–11] To defend the gospel against the charge that it promotes moral laxity (cf. Rom 3:5–8), Paul expresses himself in the typical style of spirited diatribe. God’s display of generosity or grace is not evoked by sin but, as stated in Rom 5:8 is the expression of God’s love, and this love pledges eternal life to all believers (Rom 5:21). Paul views the present conduct of the believers from the perspective of God’s completed salvation when the body is resurrected and directed totally by the holy Spirit. Through baptism believers share the death of Christ and thereby escape from the grip of sin. Through the resurrection of Christ the power to live anew becomes reality for them, but the fullness of participation in Christ’s resurrection still lies in the future. But life that is lived in dedication to God now is part and parcel of that future. Hence anyone who sincerely claims to be interested in that future will scarcely be able to say, “Let us sin so that grace may prosper” (cf. Rom 6:1).3
In the Gospel of John, we hear that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life.
* [6:35–59] Up to Jn 6:50 “bread of life” is a figure for God’s revelation in Jesus; in Jn 6:51–58, the eucharistic theme comes to the fore. There may thus be a break between Jn 6:50–51.4
Tom Shanahan, S.J. believes that contemplating life/death as death to the small (and confining) world we inhabit aids our discovery of God’s goodness in us. Our task? To receive gratefully and lovingly God’s gifts in the life/death human realities of growing up into whom we are at our core, gifts of God.
Often, we approach death with darkness and dread. But there is so much more to dying than what initially confronts us. One fruitful way to view death and dying is from the perspective of being born to new life. Let us see how that relates to the community of saints celebrated today. Our own mothers, fathers, siblings and friends, our dear ones, who have gone to God before us provide evidence of God’s goodness. Today we celebrate their lives and seek to discover their deaths as enlightenment for us. Cycles of life and death abound in our lives. Those cycles played out each day, each new season of the year, each project we undertake and ultimately our own living and dying. All these have the life-and-death factor which us deal with the final conundrum of our lives.5
Don Schwager quotes “Whoever sees and believes,” by Saint Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"He has said two things: 'This is the work of God that you should believe in the one whom he has sent,' while here he added, 'whoever sees and believes.' The Jews saw but did not believe; they had the one condition, lacked the other. How could they attain to eternal life without the other? The reason those who saw did not attain eternal life was because they did not also believe. If so, what about us who have believed but have not seen? If it is those two things that earn eternal life, seeing and believing - and whoever is lacking one of them cannot attain to the reward of eternal life - what are we to do? The Jews [who saw him] lacked the one; we the other. They had seeing but lacked believing. We have believing but lack seeing. Well, as regards our having believing and lacking seeing, we have prophetically been declared blessed by the Lord himself just as Thomas, one of the Twelve, was blessed when he felt [Jesus'] scars by touching them." (excerpt from HOLY VIRGINITY 3.1)6
The Word Among Us Meditation on Wisdom 3:1-9 gives thanks to God that when we die in friendship with him, we are saved. But for those persistent effects of sin, God offers us opportunities to be purified and cleansed even more deeply, like gold that is refined to remove impurities (Wisdom 3:6).
In his encyclical Spe Salvi [Saved in Hope], Pope Benedict XVI says that when we come face-to-face with Jesus, “all falsehood melts away.” As we encounter him whose love has conquered all evil, “we absorb the overwhelming power of his love” into our hearts. That love is so strong that it burns away whatever evil or sin remain in us. Benedict calls this “the pain of love” (47). It’s something that can be painful—but joyful too—because it ultimately brings us salvation. We can look at it as God’s way of loving the sin out of us.7
Friar Jude Winkler comments on the influence of Greek culture on the words in the passage from Wisdom. Baptism and our burial with Christ calls us to live the newness of Christ. Friar Jude reminds us that the realized eschatology of the Gospel of John also points to a future life with Christ at the end of time.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, introduces Benedictine Sister Joan Chittister, theologian, author, and speaker, whose wisdom and approach to social justice he takes very seriously. These encouraging words from her about what it means to work for the common good.
It is the unwavering faith, the open hearts, and the piercing courage of people from every level of every society that carries us through every major social breakdown to the emergence again of the humanization of humanity. In every region, everywhere, they are the unsung but mighty voices of community, high-mindedness, and deep resolve. They are the prophets of each era who prod the rest of the world into seeing newly what it means to be fully alive, personally, nationally, and spiritually. . . . It is that steadfast, unyielding, courageous commitment to the eternal Will of God for Creation—whatever the cost to themselves—that is the prophetic tradition. It sustains the eternal Word of God while the world spins around it, making God’s Word—Love—the center, the axle, the standard of everything the faithful do in the midst of the storm of change that engulfs us as we go. . . .8
Our time as members of the Body of Christ between birth and death is lived as a response to the call of the Holy Spirit to build community and seek the common good.
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