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Sometimes I step back from the God talk – theological
statements - and ask myself “what am I saying? –what do I really believe” as
I preach and recite the prayers at Is there anything in my life that relates to
Resurrection? Here I thought of my
ministry in the hospital where they would use the term resuscitate when
medical people restarted the heart to beat and the lungs to breath after some
time had lapsed without action. There was nothing of a spiritual nature on their part,
though sometimes the person involved would speak of an out of body
experience. It was also true that the
mental powers of the person resuscitated might be impaired—I remember a young
boy who technically had drowned but they restarted the heart and lungs. When
I saw him in the hospital room he had hardly any awareness and I watch many
days as his family tried with great effort to elicit some reaction from him.
Only a slight smile seemed to cross his face when they laughed with him. All this is by way of introducing a reflection on
Resurrection. Our Scriptural
introduction comes from a Prophet Ezekiel who has been described as a paradox
both as a prophet and as a priest. But
from his visions have come some great artistic works especially in the world
of music. I listened to the “Dance
Macabre” of Saint-Sains and of Franz Liszt to have a sense of the Bones,
rising up from the desert plain”.
Jesus in the gospel today deals with a body that some thought might be
putrid and smelly. The power that Jesus brings was in him before he died.
This power of the resurrection was in Jesus when he lay dead in the
tomb. This is the power of
resurrection that lies in every member of Jesus, living or dead. Paul explains it well in his writings.
“(Romans 8:10-11) But if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of
sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from
the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will give life to
your mortal bodies also through his Spirit that dwells in you.” When Paul speaks of the “spirit” he means either the Holy
Sprit or each of us spiritualized by the Holy Spirit also known by those of
us earlier instructed as “the state of grace”. This resurrected life is the
gift of God reinforced through the initiation sacraments of Baptism,
Confirmation and Eucharist (Holy Communion) All of this God-life given freely
to bring from us our love of God. . Fr.
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