On The Resurrection After Death
EIGHTEENTH SERMON
ON THE HOPE IN AND TRUTH OF OUR FUTURE RESURRECTION.
Subject.
We shall all rise again from the dead; this is the foundation of our hope. Preached on Easter Sunday.
Text.
Surrexit. "He is risen" Mark xvi. 6.
Introduction.
You holy women, said the angel, why do you spend so much time seeking Jesus amongst the dead? He has indeed suffered much; He was nailed to the cross, and at last died on it; He was buried, too, in this place; but all that is at an end. " You seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified," in order to show to Him as to one deceased the last honors; but in vain do you seek Him here: " He is risen; He is not here;" you will see Him, as He Him self told you, in Galilee. " Go, tell His disciples and Peter that He goes before you into Galilee: there you shall see Him as He told you, My dear brethren, Christ is really risen from the dead; no true Christian has the least doubt of that. But how can that be a comfort for us? Our Head may be in glory, really living again; what better are we, the members He has left be hind, if we have to rot away in the grave and remain dead for ever? But, Christians, this latter is not the case. Our bodies shall indeed decay in the grave; but that we shall die forever according to the soul is not true by any means, as I now proceed to show.
Plan of Discourse.
We shall all truly rise again from the dead. That is the foundation of our hope, and the subject of this sermon.
O dear Lord, risen from the grave, encourage us all by this hope to do good according to the law of our faith; this we beg of You through the merits of Mary and the intercession of our holy guardian angels.
Just as the foundation of our faith is the resurrection of Our Lord from the dead according to the body, so the foundation of our hope is our own resurrection from the dead according to the body. A Christian, says St. Peter Chrysologus, should always keep this truth deeply impressed on his mind; for it assures him that if he serves his God faithfully here below he shall one day be happy, body and soul, with the same God for all eternity. This truth is the bridle which powerfully restrains us from evil, the spur which drives us on to do good. This is the truth which, when well considered, embitters to us all the foolish joys of earth, and sweetens the sorrows and trials of this short life. And what would it profit us to live even for a moment amongst the troubles of this life, if we had not the hope of living forever in heaven? Who would have the courage to take crosses and trials from the hand of God and bear them with patience and cheerfulness, or to inflict voluntary penances on himself, if the mortified and emaciated body must rot forever in the grave and never get any re ward for its penitential practices? Then should the poor and persecuted be contrary to what Our Lord says of them the most unhappy creatures on earth, for whom there is nothing in store but sighs, tears, and despair. Then might we say with the fools in the Book of Wisdom: "We are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been." Why, then, should we trouble ourselves? "Come, therefore, and let us en joy the good things that are present. Let none of us go with out his part in luxury: let us everywhere leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this is our lot;" let us eat, drink, and enjoy ourselves while we have time; for when death comes we shall have neither joy to hope for nor sorrow to fear.
But we have a far better assurance than that from our faith in the resurrection of our Redeemer, and we know that we shall live forever body and soul, according to the words of St. Paul: " And we will not have you ignorant, brethren, concerning them that are asleep, that you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them who have slept through Jesus will God bring with Him." For the Lord Himself shall come down from heaven with commandment, and with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God: and the dead who are in Christ, shall rise first... We shall be taken up together with them in the clouds to meet Christ, into the air, and so shall we be always with the Lord. Wherefore comfort you one another with these words."
And who could doubt of this truth who has once believed in the resurrection of Christ, by which He proved Himself to be the God of infallible truth; especially since He has so often taught it by His own word and by the testimony of His prophets? God showed the Prophet Ezechiel in a vision a vast field filled with bones scattered in all directions: " The hand of the Lord. . . . brought me forth in the spirit of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of a plain, that was full of bones. . . . Now they were very many upon the face of the plain, and they were exceeding dry. Son of man," said the Lord to him, "do you think these bones shall live?" But that you may know who the Lord is, only say in My name: "Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit, and you shall live." Hardly had the Prophet spoken these words at the command of God, when he saw the bones moving of their own accord, coining together covered with flesh and skin, and standing up a great army. "And as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each one to its joint, . . .and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood upon their feet, an exceeding great army." Do you know what this signifies? asked the Lord. " All these bones are the house of Israel: They say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off, separated from the land of the living; but go and tell them: "Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, . . .and you shall know that I am the Lord," l and that it is I who have done it.
What God showed in a vision to His people in the Old Testament Our Lord declares still more clearly in the Gospel of St. John: " Amen, amen, I say to you, that the hour comes ... when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God. All that are in the graves shall hear the voice of the Son of God: And they that have done good things shall come forth to the resurrection of life: but they that have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment." And again in the same gospel: " This is the will of my Father that sent Me: that everyone who seeth the Son, and believeth in Him, may have life everlasting, and I will raise him up in the last day." These prophecies are as certain to be fulfilled as it is certain that God cannot lie.
All that Our Lord prophesied in the gospel has been fulfilled so completely hitherto that even His most bitter opponents cannot with any show of reason deny its fulfilment; much less can there be any doubt regarding His prophecy concerning the resurrection of the body, for that is the foundation of the whole gospel. He had foretold that the service that Magdalene rendered Him by pouring the precious ointment over His head should become known throughout the whole world, wherever the gospel was to be preached: " Amen I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she has done shall be told for a memory of her." But was that such a great work? Did it contribute so much to the spread of the faith? And yet Our Lord's words regarding it have been strictly fulfilled to the very letter, and shall be fulfilled to the end of the world. More important than that was His prophecy concerning the triumph of His Church over the gates of hell, the persecution of tyrants, and the attacks of heresy: "Be hold," He said to His disciples, " I send you as sheep in the midst of wolves; " l and in those words He alluded to the persecutions they would have to suffer when He sent them into the world to preach the gospel. They will drive you from one city to another; " they will deliver you up in councils and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you shall be hated by all men for My name's sake." They will crucify you and put you to death; nevertheless My kingdom shall thrive and shall never be overcome in the midst of the fiercest persecutions. And this prophecy has been literally fulfilled, as is proved by the thousands of martyrs who have shed their blood for their faith, and by the progress the Church has always made in spite of heresies and persecutions; and in future heresies and persecutions she will remain just as unshaken in her faith.
Now can Our Lord, who has carried out all His prophecies to His apostles, martyrs, confessors, and servants regarding the com- bats and martyrdom that was in store for them can He deceive them in what concerns their reward and resurrection to eternal life? Utterly impossible! We have a faithful God, who cannot otherwise foretell things but as He knows they will occur, shall be. Nor should we pay the least attention to heathen philosophers, and the many worldly-wise Christians, who are really atheists, who try to measure all truths by their poor human reason, or to speak more correctly, who deny all truths that might disturb them in the enjoyment of forbidden lusts and pleasures. Who can understand, they ask, how the soul can be reunited to the body, once it has left it? Who can understand how the same body, after it has lain in the grave for hundreds or thousands of years, and has been turned into dust and ashes, or has been devoured by fishes or birds of prey or wild beasts, so that not a particle of it remains, can be restored to its former living state? That seems impossible; therefore what we hear about the resurrection of the dead cannot be true. Such is the whole basis of their argument. great Apostle St. Paul, come and preach to those people! But they will be like those to whom you didst preach at Athens: " And when they had heard of the resurrection of the dead," so we read in the Acts of the Apostles, " some indeed mocked, but others said: We will hear you again concerning this matter." l Truly that is a clever argument: we can not understand it, therefore it cannot be true! As if God had to limit His Almighty power by the narrow bounds of human understanding! Truly He would be a poor, weak God if He could do nothing except what we could understand!
Listen for a moment, you who argue in that manner. There is a peasant sowing rye and wheat in his field; ask him why he does that? to what purpose is he scattering the good grain over the ground? It will certainly rot away and die. Yes, indeed, he will answer, and that is the reason why I am scattering it. What? you reply; would it not be wiser for you to make it into bread? No, he answers, it is clear you do not know what you are talking about; if we peasants did not act as I am acting now neither we nor you should have any bread for a long time. Come back in a few months, after the scattered grain has had time to rot in the ground; then you will see the whole field covered with stalks grown out of the dead seed, and each bearing thirty, forty, fifty such grains. But, you exclaim, I do not see how that can be. Nor I either, answers the peasant; still there is not a doubt about it. Now if you continue your former argument, and say no, that cannot be, for I do not understand it, the peasant will laugh at you, and think to himself: that must be a most learned doctor who will not even believe that corn grows! What do you say to this? continues the peasant. The tree you see over there was not there twenty years ago; I put a small, dry kernel in the ground, and now it has become that tree. Can you understand how a small seed as big as a pea can conceal the force necessary to produce so many boughs and branches? Tell me why the branches bend? why the trunk and the roots are immovable? why is the rind hard? the leaves green? the fruit soft and full of sap? All this comes from the virtue of the little seed that died in the ground. Can you understand how all that happens? Yet you may prove it yourself; if you take the trouble to plant and sow you will have the same result of your labor as I have had. You must know that above in heaven there is an Almighty God, who can do much more than we two can under stand. And the peasant would be perfectly right. We daily see miracles performed by nature before our eyes, but we cease to wonder at them on account of their frequency and our long experience of them. And because we cannot understand how they are done, must we therefore deny their existence, and say that they are mere deceptions, ocular illusions? No; our common sense for bids us to say that! If, then, we must acknowledge that our poor, weak intellect is unable to cope with mere natural phenomena of daily occurrence, how much more readily should we not submit our reason in things that the Author of nature has undertaken to perform by His almighty power in the last days of the world?
And to stick to our subject, do you wish to learn the wonderful might of the voice of the Son of God over the dead ? Then go in thought to the dead daughter of the ruler of the synagogue, to the widow's son of Nairn, to Lazarus, whose body had already begun to decay in the grave. The first of these Jesus took by the hand while He was still in the mortal body: "And taking the damsel by the hand, he said to her: Damsel (I say to you) life. arise." The second case cost Him just as few words: " And He came near and touched the bier. And He said: Young man, I say to you, arise." In the third case He only spoke somewhat louder: "He cried with a loud voice: Lazarus, come forth." The command of this voice was enough to bring back the souls and unite them with the bodies they had left, and they who were dead became alive again in the presence of many spectators. Of the ruler's daughter St. Mark says: " And immediately the damsel rose up, and walked." Of the young man St. Luke says: "And he that was dead sat up, and began to speak." Of Lazarus St. John says: "And presently he that had been dead came forth." At the death and resurrection of Christ did not many bodies of the saints, which had already long crumbled into dust, and whose ashes had been scattered over the earth, come out of their graves and appear living in the city of Jerusalem?
"And the graves were opened," says St. Matthew; " and many bodies of the saints that had slept arose, and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection, came into the holy city and appeared to many." If the Son of God was then able to do so much by merely speaking a few words; if the servants of God after wards had the power of raising the dead by the bare mention of the name of Jesus Christ, must the same Son of God have less might and power over the dead when He will cite them before His judgment-seat, although we cannot understand how He will do that? Again; consider the stars in the firmament, the birds in the air, the fishes in the sea, the animals and men on earth, and yourself amongst them; where do they come from ? A few you sand years ago they were not. Ask them who is the Master of all those creatures, and they will all answer you: "Know you that the Lord He is God: He made us, and not we ourselves." But who can understand that? " He spoke and they were made: He commanded and they were created;" it was all He required to do. And is it not the same Architect who has fashioned the wonderful edifice of the human body, and who can rebuild it after it has been destroyed ? If He has done the one without asking your advice, and without your intellect being in the least able to understand how He did it, can He not do the other also without you and your intellect? If the Almighty God could give being to man when the latter was a mere nothing; why should He not be able to give life again to his body after it has crumbled away into dust?
Oh, the Prophet Job did not require all those proofs! Hear this wonderful man preaching from his dung-hill as from a pulpit: " Who will grant me that my words may be written ? " so that all may be able to read them. "Who will grant me that they may be marked down in a book with an iron pen, and in a plate of lead, or else be graven with an instrument in flint-atone?" that they may never be obliterated or forgotten. Mark, my dear brethren, with what dignity this holy man commences his discourse. Certainly the doctrine he is about to deliver must be most weighty and worthy to be deeply impressed on the minds of men. And what is it? "For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day I shall rise out of the earth, and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God." I know this; I am sure of it; I cannot doubt it. But what art you saying, holy Prophet? Art you really to rise again ? and in thine own flesh? You seest that it is already being gnawed by the worms. Art you to see your God in that body of thine, which is already corrupting, so that you have to scrape off the putrid matter? And is that to happen on the last day, when you shalt have been long turned into dust and ashes? Perhaps thou art speaking of another skin, another body like the one you now have, in which you shalt see your God? No, he answers; " Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall be hold, and not another." I, who am now sitting on this dung hill, shall see my God; these eyes and no others shall look on Him; I shall rise again in this skin of mine, and in no other, in this flesh and no other. I know that; I am certain of it. But how art you so certain of it? Who has taught it you, since it is not yet written in any law? Reason alone cannot teach such a truth, for it seems contrary to all reason that a body which has once decayed should return to its original form and life again. All the wisdom of the world will cry down this doctrine of the resurrection of the body when it shall be preached, and will declare it impossible. How then canst you be so certain of it? Truly I am quite certain of it; I know it; I have not learned it in any human school; it is a mystery that God Himself has taught me; that is enough for me to look on it as an indubitable truth. God has indeed set before me countless figures of my approaching resurrection; almost all creatures I see do hardly anything but die and live again; the day dies, as it were in the evening, and comes to life again in the morning; the year dies in winter, and comes to life again in spring; the trees lose their fruit and leaves and die with the year; but in spring they recover their former beauty and life. These and a hundred other natural phenomena place before my eyes the resurrection from the dead; but I am not influenced by those things in my belief. God has revealed it to me, and that is enough. I know therefore, beyond a possibility of doubt, chat in the last day I shall rise out of the earth: and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God." God has revealed it. This alone, my dear brethren, should suffice to make us believe in the resurrection from the dead.
But where am I? What sort of hearers are present? Am I amongst heathens and idolaters, who do not believe in the resurrection, that I have taken so much trouble to convince them of the truth of this mystery? Have I not on another occasion shown that Jesus Christ really rose from the dead; and must I now go to such lengths to show that all men shall rise again from their graves on the last day? Are we not all good Christians here? Why then have I wasted so much precious time, that might have been better employed for the good of souls in treating of some more practical subject? There is none of us here who doubts of this truth, or has ever doubted it; why then go so far to prove it? Ah, would to God that your complaint were justified; that I were wrong in this matter; that we were all in truth faithful Christians, who show in our lives what we pro fess with the lips, that, namely, we shall one day rise again body and soul! But how do the lives of many harmonize with this doctrine?
The holy apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier, once came into a certain town of India, where there were some Christian merchants who had come from Europe to trade. He began to preach to the heathens about Jesus the Crucified, His death, resurrection, ascent into heaven, His holy law, His promises, the rewards He holds out to those who keep His law, and the eternal life that is to be their lot. What do you think that Xavier effected by his preaching? Xavier, that great apostle whose words had already converted cities, islands, kingdoms to the Catholic faith? Nothing at all, as he sorrowfully admits in his letter to Europe. Why? What was the stone that blocked his path? Alas that I have to say it! It was the Christians; the Christians, and no others! If none of them had come to the place the heathens would have been converted. The God of whom you are preaching to us (so they said to Xavier) cannot be so holy, so just in chastising, so generous in rewarding, so faithful to His promises as you say; the law He has left, the religion He has founded, cannot be so perfect as you pretend; and it would be useless for you to try to change our opinion in this respect, because it is justified by the lives of the Christians who are in our midst and who profess to believe in i.he crucified God and His religion. They live just as we heathens do; they gratify their lusts as we do, who believe in no future state; they are vindictive, as we are; intemperate, avaricious, treacherous, unjust, even worse than we; therefore there is no difference except in name between us and you Christians; our manner of life is the same. Preach then first to your own people who believe in Christ; and then you can preach to us. You try to persuade as that we cannot be happy in the next life if we continue in our present religion; will the Christians, living as we know they do, be happy? If we are to be damned because we lead bad lives, and they are to be damned because they lead bad lives, does not that come to one and the same thing? We gratify our lusts as long as we can, because we do not expect another life after this; but we are not so bad as those who gratify their lusts as we do, and yet believe that, as you describe to us, there is after this life an eternal one of joy in heaven or suffering in hell. Thus the well-meant efforts of St. Francis were frustrated and his preaching rendered fruitless.
My dear brethren, might not Jews and infidels make the same objection to some Christians in this country that those heathens made to St. Francis? " Tell me," said St. John Chrysostom to his hearers, " tell me by what sign I shall know you to be Christians; show me a proof of your faith," that I may distinguish you from Turks and heathens. Show me that you believe in eternal life. Where is your Christian faith? On your tongue? But no one can find it there. You calumniate and detract, you vilify, and swear, and curse, and blaspheme worse that? many a Turk. Where is your faith ? In your hands? No; many a Turk is more just in his dealings, more generous in alms-giving than you. Where is your faith ? In your mind and imagination? No; there is too much self-conceit there, too much ambition, which cannot harmonize with the humility of Jesus Christ, and is more opposed to it than even the pride of an infidel. Is it in your eyes? No; they are too curious, vain, unchaste, like the eyes of those who have no hope of seeing their Redeemer after death. Is it in your heart? No; that is full of envy, hatred, revenge, impure love, and bad desires; it is as bad as any heathen's. In your body? No; you gorge it with excess in eating and drinking; you gratify its lusts as much as any infidel does. In your dress? No; the Jews are less scandalous than you in that particular. Tell me in what I can see your Christianity? By what sign can I find that you believe in the resurrection of the body? By the diligence you show in heaping up merits and good works for the next life? No; we see no such thing in you; quite the contrary; all your care is devoted to temporal goods to which your heart is fettered, as if you had to spend a long eternity here on earth. Perhaps in the patience you show in bearing crosses and trials? in the voluntary penances you practise in the hope of receiving an exceeding great reward for them in the next life? By no means; the least discomfort is intolerable to you; you hardly know what it is to mortify your senses. Perhaps in the fortitude with which you await death, hoping by it to obtain a better life? Still less. The bare thought of death fills you with terror, like those of whom St. Paul speaks: " That you be not sorrowful, even as others who have no hope." Show me your faith, Christian! Let me see some sign to prove that you believe in the resurrection. Where shall we find it? In the Baptismal Register in which your name is enrolled amongst the names of other Christians? Yes. In the sign of the cross, which you make now and then? Yes. On your lips, by which you profess to be a Christian? Yes. Nothing more? No; that is all. poor faith! wretched Christianity! How can this dead faith in the resurrection help you, since you live like a beast of the field, whose soul perishes with its body? Such is the sense in which St. Chrysostom speaks. But I have a better opinion of those here present than to think such a sharp reproof necessary for them.
I turn then to true Christians, and conclude in the words which St. Paul wrote to the Corinthians after he had explained to them the resurrection of the body: " Therefore, my beloved brethren, be you steadfast and immovable: always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not vain in the Lord," that it will not perish with this life. I add, moreover, the exhortation that he gave his disciple Titus: " Denying godliness and worldly desires, we should live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world; looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and Our Saviour Jesus Christ." Upwards with your thoughts and desires! " Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth." Why do we grub so long like moles in the mud of this vale of tears? The earth is not our lasting habitation; we have a far happier fatherland, to which we approach as travelling pilgrims nearer and nearer every day, to live there forever. If things go well with us for a time here below let us say to ourselves: after all what is the good of all this? These are not the joys that can content me; unhappy in deed should I be if I had nothing better to expect! And if what the world calls adversity assails us, then let us think: after all, what does it matter? This is not the place where I am to find happiness, and my tears shall not flow very long; the resurrection, the divine life, a blissful immortality which Jesus Christ has won for me by His Passion and death awaits me. With this hope I will console myself in the time of suffering; with this hope I will arm myself against all temptations, that I may never offend my God; with this hope I will daily spur myself on to serve God truly and constantly to the end according to my state and condition, that after my resurrection I may go body and soul " where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God." Amen.