15th Sunday after Pentecost 1.9.13 Coming back to life
The raising of the young man back to life was an extraordinary event. Extraordinary for its outcome. Extraordinary for its simplicity. ‘Young man, I tell you to get up.’ How easily the Lord imparts life!
He is the Lord of life, after all; the Creator of the world and all that is in it.
He did this three times in His public life: the other two being the daughter of Jairus, and Lazarus.
Why only those times when there must have been many other deaths He encountered? Those three were privileged cases. It would not become God’s normal practice, though He certainly would be capable of raising any dead person back to life.
We cannot complain on this point. If God withholds one blessing it is to give us something better. And what is better for us is that we are not just resuscitated but resurrected.
We come back to life indeed, but it is a better kind of life than we knew before (presuming that by God’s mercy we are saved.)
If we are fortunate enough to reach Heaven we would not want to come back to earth. By the same logic we should not want those we love to come back.
We miss them, but we understand we are still united with them through the bonds of faith and love. United in Christ who is Lord of the living and the dead.
While Our Lord does not normally raise people back to life here on earth He does continue to restore sons to their mother - insofar as the Church is Mother of all her children, including the wayward ones.
The only snag in this case is that those who are spiritually dead may not want to be brought back to life.
Forgiveness is not possible unless there is some sort of consent from the one needing forgiveness.
There is no question of Our Lord’s ability and willingness to offer mercy but many who need that mercy will resist it.
So Mother Church prays for the grace that will move her children to a receptive state of soul.
It is an endless task given the number of children who are ‘dead’ in one degree or another.
The present widespread misconception that going to heaven is more or less automatic is a very worrying factor. Mercy has to be received as well as given. It is not so easy as many think. But it is possible, and with lots of prayer and penance it is more likely to happen.
Who will be converted and how and when we do not know, but the more we pray the more will be saved; will come back to life.
Qui pro vobis et pro multis... for you and for many – words used at the Consecration.
‘For many’: Christ died for all as far as what He wanted to happen, but for many insofar as not all will accept. It is up to us to increase the size of that ‘many’.
Most sinners are not going to leap up and start praying for themselves so we have to start proceedings for them.
We don't have to tell the Lord that these people are important; they are more so to Him than to us. But we know that He wants us to realize their importance and to grow to the point that we care what happens to others. We want them to have life as we hope to have it for ourselves.
This is a maturing to a higher level of charity; pleasing to God.
He came that we might have life, and have it to the full. We have no argument with that. Only may we be humble enough to receive what He wants to give.
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