Tenth Sunday in Ordinary Time
For as stupendous as raising someone from the dead is, it happens somewhat frequently in the Bible. We heard about God raising the widow of Zarephath’s child through Elijah in our first reading, and Jesus raising the son of the widow from Nain in today’s Gospel. Jesus also raises the daughter of Jairus, a synagogue official, and Lazarus. After Jesus ascended into heaven, Peter raises a young girl named Dorkas (what an unfortunate name!), and Paul raises to life a person who falls out of a window after that person had fallen asleep because of how long Paul was preaching (there are dangers with preaching too long!). I don’t know why, but I feel like that’s a lot of times. About a month ago, I was given credit for raising someone from the dead by some of our firefighters, after I was riding with the firefighters and we responded to a call of someone having a heart attack, who seemed to miraculously wake up when we arrived (in reality, that person was an example of why you should never mix alcohol and a prescription narcotic).
But God truly does raise people from death on a regular basis, if we take time to think about it. God raises from death those who are baptized. In baptism, children, men and women are taken from being at enmity with God to being His children. By baptism, people are buried with Christ–they die–so that they can rise with Him to new life. By baptism, the old self has to die, like the grain of wheat, so that the new self, the person alive in Christ, can live.
But that process of dying and rising does not stop on the day that we are baptized. Each day we have the opportunity to die and rise. It starts for some of us at the moment our eyes open. At that moment we have the opportunity to die to our laziness and the comfort of our bed and rise to the new day that is before us. There’s nothing wrong with hitting the snooze button if we have time, but at some point for many of us, we need to get up and get prepared for the day. That’s why, at the beginning of my day, before my feet hit the floor of my bedroom, I say a short prayer: Mater mea, fiducia mea!–My Mother, my confidence!, and I entrust my entire day to Jesus through the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary. You could say any prayer that you like, but prayer is a great way to rise to new life.
Throughout our day there will be people trying to kill us. Sometimes we are the people trying to kill others. Hopefully not literally, but certainly figuratively. What I mean by that is that we are all sinful, and we all give in to temptations, to not be disciples of Jesus. Whether it’s others or ourselves, there’s gossip, slander, sharing secrets we have no business sharing, treating others as objects or as means to advancement, and the list could go on and on. If we are the culprit, then we need to die to all of those sins. We need them to be put to death, and Jesus does that by His suffering on the cross. When we bite our lip, or treat someone kindly, we are dying to our fallen nature and its sinful tendencies. If we are on the receiving end, then we die when we patiently suffer through them (correcting when necessary and prudent) instead of giving back what we received. And whether we are putting to death our own tendencies, or suffering with Jesus because of others’ tendencies, new life, resurrection, is available for us, not only after our earthly life ends, but even on this side of eternity.
Because those who can accept suffering and unite it with Jesus do live happier lives. They may still have the same sorrows, but they do not let the sorrows control their lives. They cling to their new life in Christ, given to them in baptism, and live in the joy of the Resurrection, even in this vale of tears. Which is the happier life: the one tossed about by uncontrollable forces, or the one who entrusts his or her life to God and stays on a steady course toward Him?
Everything in our nature rebels against death. We were not made to die, but experience death because of sin. We see that rejection of death and its power in our first reading and Gospel today. But there is another kind of death, a healing death, a death to our sinful selves, a death in Christ, which is not contrary to who we are, but helps us to be the fullest person we were created to be. May we allow our sinful natures to die with Christ on the cross, so that we can also rise with Him to new life, both in our daily lives, and especially in the life to come.
