We shall discuss here about our own resurrection after death in this last Post of our "Art of Spiritual Life". According to Christian doctrine, all members of the human race are destined to rise at the end of the world to a new world order where heaven and hell have their roles to play. Heaven is essentially seeing God face to face, without any intermediate obstructions in full light as God Himself is pure Light. Hell, on the contrary, is the absence of this kind of access to God that will torment those who are condemned as their very being was designed for union with God. Depending on the kind of life we live here on earth, heaven or hell already begins here on earth for individuals. Although full access to and union with God can happen only at the resurrection, each blessed soul on departure from the body at death has the beatific vision, i.e., seeing God face to face. This, however, can be only to a minimum degree as the body is still missing and therefore it is befitting to see death as the beginning of a long sleep. Resurrection is seen as waking up from this sleep after death on the day of public and final judgment. Since only the most perfect can see God face to face , the "long sleep" is also suitable for the imperfect to purify themselves. This stage was earlier known as 'purgatory'. The prayers for the dead are meant to aid those who still need further purification. The condemned, however, has no hope here as they definitively rejected God's love and forgiveness when they lived here on earth. As for the effectiveness and need of prayers for the dead, denounced as useless even by some Christian denominations, we should remember how Jesus went down to the dead and preached the good news to them (1 Peter, 3: 18-20). This means that the departed souls are not completely impervious to our spiritual endeavors that may benefit them. Thus the main contention of those who argue against the prayers for the dead has no basis in the Faith of the Church. It is another matter, however, that some believers tend to commercialize the system into a kind of business by selling favors in the name and for the sake of the departed souls! The remedy for any kind of abuse is not to completely ban the legitimate use, but to closely monitor and correct the abuses.
Our faith in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead stands as guarantee and assurance for our own resurrection. The plan of God, as seen from the Bible, is to redeem the whole Universe through Jesus Christ in which we humans have an important part to play. As we are endowed with bodies, unlike the angels who are pure spirits, we are most suitable candidates for recapitulating the material contents of the Universe through the instrumentality of our bodies. This is why we should keep our bodies as well as the environment we live in clean and healthy that will have an impact on the entire Universe in its own way. The groundwork and foundation have been laid for the same by Jesus Christ by suffering in his body and dying so that the entire Universe may live. Why suffering in the body is considered to be beneficial for our souls? The answer is found in the Letter to the Hebrews when dealing with the necessity of suffering for Jesus. There it is mentioned that Jesus learnt obedience by his suffering (See Hebrews, 5: 7-10). A most unexpected reason for someone like Jesus, who was always in perfect conformity with the Will of God, to suffer physical pain! If so, how much more should physical and mental suffering be useful for us sinners to reform ourselves internally and obey the Will of God? The Psalmist has no doubt about the usefulness of suffering for our salvation when he says: "My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit" (Psalm, 51:17).
The new life after resurrection we hope for is already foreshadowed in our present life as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is meant not merely for Christians, but for the entire human race for whose redemption the Word of God took flesh and appeared in history as Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus by his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead became Christ, i.e., the anointed one, marked by God as the savior of the world. Unfortunately, the Church has miserably failed in proclaiming this good news meant for the whole humanity. It happened in the historical understanding of the Incarnation as a property of the Church defined in a very narrow sense. The identification of the Church with its visible elements ignoring its equally important invisible elements was one of the main reasons for the same. Similarly, the identification of the Kingdom of God with the Church, instead of the other way round, unnecessarily jettisoned the scope of the Kingdom The same may be said about the identification of Jesus Christ with the Church that is his body, the visible and the invisible elements taken together. According to St. Paul, in Jesus Christ the entire humanity has already died , risen and is sitting at the right hand of God (See Ephesians, 2: 6-7). Those who have been baptized in Christ have the same status with a mission added to their lives to be the proclaimers of the Kingdom to come that has been already inaugurated here on earth by the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
Our entire spiritual life is nothing but the upkeep and enhancement of the gifts showered upon us by God from the moment of our conception. The first and foremost of these gifts is the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Similarly, our assimilation to Jesus Christ already effected by means of his death , resurrection and sitting at the right hand of God is the crowning glory of the gifts showered on us. If only we are thankful to God and endeavor to enhance these gifts, our life would truly be spiritual. The Art of Spiritual Life, as we have seen in this Study, is to invite the Spirit of God already working in us into our daily routines. Thus, there will not be any separation between the secular and the sacred but a harmonious unity empowering us in our daily life. (Concluded).
Our faith in the resurrection of Jesus from the dead stands as guarantee and assurance for our own resurrection. The plan of God, as seen from the Bible, is to redeem the whole Universe through Jesus Christ in which we humans have an important part to play. As we are endowed with bodies, unlike the angels who are pure spirits, we are most suitable candidates for recapitulating the material contents of the Universe through the instrumentality of our bodies. This is why we should keep our bodies as well as the environment we live in clean and healthy that will have an impact on the entire Universe in its own way. The groundwork and foundation have been laid for the same by Jesus Christ by suffering in his body and dying so that the entire Universe may live. Why suffering in the body is considered to be beneficial for our souls? The answer is found in the Letter to the Hebrews when dealing with the necessity of suffering for Jesus. There it is mentioned that Jesus learnt obedience by his suffering (See Hebrews, 5: 7-10). A most unexpected reason for someone like Jesus, who was always in perfect conformity with the Will of God, to suffer physical pain! If so, how much more should physical and mental suffering be useful for us sinners to reform ourselves internally and obey the Will of God? The Psalmist has no doubt about the usefulness of suffering for our salvation when he says: "My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit" (Psalm, 51:17).
The new life after resurrection we hope for is already foreshadowed in our present life as a result of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is meant not merely for Christians, but for the entire human race for whose redemption the Word of God took flesh and appeared in history as Jesus of Nazareth. This Jesus by his death on the cross and resurrection from the dead became Christ, i.e., the anointed one, marked by God as the savior of the world. Unfortunately, the Church has miserably failed in proclaiming this good news meant for the whole humanity. It happened in the historical understanding of the Incarnation as a property of the Church defined in a very narrow sense. The identification of the Church with its visible elements ignoring its equally important invisible elements was one of the main reasons for the same. Similarly, the identification of the Kingdom of God with the Church, instead of the other way round, unnecessarily jettisoned the scope of the Kingdom The same may be said about the identification of Jesus Christ with the Church that is his body, the visible and the invisible elements taken together. According to St. Paul, in Jesus Christ the entire humanity has already died , risen and is sitting at the right hand of God (See Ephesians, 2: 6-7). Those who have been baptized in Christ have the same status with a mission added to their lives to be the proclaimers of the Kingdom to come that has been already inaugurated here on earth by the life, death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ.
Our entire spiritual life is nothing but the upkeep and enhancement of the gifts showered upon us by God from the moment of our conception. The first and foremost of these gifts is the fact that we are created in the image and likeness of God. Similarly, our assimilation to Jesus Christ already effected by means of his death , resurrection and sitting at the right hand of God is the crowning glory of the gifts showered on us. If only we are thankful to God and endeavor to enhance these gifts, our life would truly be spiritual. The Art of Spiritual Life, as we have seen in this Study, is to invite the Spirit of God already working in us into our daily routines. Thus, there will not be any separation between the secular and the sacred but a harmonious unity empowering us in our daily life. (Concluded).
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