IF A MAN KEEP MY SAYING...

A REFLECTION FOR PASSION SUNDAY

What does our Lord mean when he declares that “if a man keep my saying, he shall never see death”?  The Jews to whom he said this didn’t understand, certainly, not only questioning him about it, but accusing him of having a devil for saying such things.  They resort to accusations because they have still not grasped that this man before them is their Messiah and the Son of God.  They cannot possibly understand that they will be exempted from death simply by following his sayings.

Today, we have an advantage over these Jews who refused to accept the divinity of Christ.  We have the faith that tells us that if we follow Christ’s sayings, then death will not be the end of life, but merely a transition to a better life.  Our confirmation of this truth is nothing less than the Resurrection of Christ from the death, living proof that robs death of the finality that people have so dreaded. 

Even today, atheists and non-believers fear death.  They fear the cold of the grave, the idea that their bodies will decompose in the earth, that their life was nothing more than a speck in time in which they achieved nothing.  What a sad thing it must be to have nothing left to look forward to as we grow older. 

The reverse should be true for us.  Sure, we may fear the dying process, the discomforts, pain and indignity of leaving this world.  But the life beyond beckons us with open arms, and we can look forward, if we keep our Lord’s sayings, to a warm welcome from a merciful Judge.

During the next two weeks of Passiontide, the message is clear.  No matter how much suffering must be endured, our mortal bodies will rise again.  It is in the example of our blessed Lord’s Passion that we find the strength to endure whatever happens on the way, and the more com-passion we have for him, the greater our chance of persevering.  It is this union in our Lord’s Passion that inspires us to a higher love than that of self, a love that is shown by keeping his commandments.  If we do this, our bodies will rise from the dead just as our Lord’s body rose at the Resurrection.

Our Lord himself put it more clearly still when he spoke to St. Martha shortly before raising her brother Lazarus from the dead.  We would do well to learn his words by heart, and repeat them to ourselves when the time comes:  “I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:  and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.”