Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

The Kind Of Death God Did Not Make

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

Church of St. Bridget of Minneapolis, MN

Sunday, June 30, 2024

Death is a universal phenomenon common to all material beings. After we are born into life, we grow, and then die. This cycle, understandably causes people to ask, what’s the meaning of life? What’s the origin of death? For the latter question, there are plenty of claims and submissions. But in the Bible, particularly in our first reading for this weekend (Wisdom 1:13-15), we hear, “God did not make death.” I tell you, that statement is so odd and so strange. If God didn’t create death, then who did? Death is the most natural thing on earth. Every living thing—trees, plants, insects, animals from the beginning of the world has died. And those living today will eventually die. And we human beings are not an exception to this norm and rule, since we are part of the natural world. So, what does it mean to say that God did not make death when it seems eminently clear that he did? The Book of Wisdom goes on to state that “God formed man to be imperishable; the image of his own nature he made him. But by envy of the devil, death entered the world.”

Is Wisdom’s declaration hard to grasp? You betcha! For it does appear too simplistic and too mythical. How can death come through sin and through the envy of the devil? But what does “God did not make death” mean? Death here should not be taken in a literal and physical sense. It should not be understood to mean the dissolution of the body. Death, as the author of the Book of Wisdom intends the term, is about the psychological, spiritual and physical horror that we experience whenever death is mentioned and whenever we are about to lose a loved one. At the prospect of physical death, we usually recoil in horror. Why? Because we are all sinners and have become alienated from God who is the Source of life. It is this alienation from God that makes us see physical death as something strange and unknown. And the unknown always terrifies us and makes us see death as the end, as just darkness. The terrifying consequence of this kind of attitude is inability to surrender and to trust. If you are wondering why we are afraid of physical death, this is it. It is this kind of death— death of trust, death of hope in the resurrection that God did not invent. So, when the author of the Book of Wisdom says, “God did not make death,” he means it in the full sense, the full psychological, spiritual and physical experience of death that is conditioned by sin. That is what God did not make. God did not make death as something terrible, horrifying, and nihilistic. That’s what God did not invent. This is the death that in the words of St. Paul is “the wages of sin.” 

What could physical death be for someone who never sinned? What could physical death be for people who are truly ready? They have made peace with God; they have sacramentally reconciled with God and are truly ready to transition. For someone who has never sinned, we have the example of the Blessed Mother. In the Catechism of the Catholic Church, we read this line, “When the course of her earthly life was over…” Now, this is the sinless Virgin Mary immaculately conceived, yet, the course of her earthly life ended, which means that she was not meant to simply live within this dimension of space and time. More to it, her transition from this world to the next is not described as death, but as falling asleep. It was peaceful, effortless, and untroubled by fear. This is how it goes with someone without sin and someone whose sins are forgiven by the Lord (Psalm 32:1). The physical death of the Blessed Mother is spoken of as “falling asleep” because she was utterly confident in God’s love. She did not experience the alienation from God that we sinners experience. Mary fell asleep and woke up again in the transfigured life of the next world. That’s why on every August 15, we celebrate the Assumption of Mary, body and soul into heaven. Her transition was not a horrible and terrifying death, it was a Dormition (a falling asleep). 

With this background in mind, we turn to the Gospel (Mark 5:21-43). It begins with Jairus, a synagogue official falling at the feet of Jesus and intensely begging Jesus to come and cure his daughter who was dying. On his way to cure her, Jesus is approached by a woman who has had hemorrhages for twelve years. She was cured when she touched the tassel of Jesus’ cloak. Thereafter, he comes to Jairus’ home and receives the news that the young girl has died. What did Jesus do next? First, he disregards the message and says to Jairus, “Do not be afraid; just have faith.” Jesus receives word of death, the same reality that frightens us sinners the most. Our own death and the death of loved ones, terrifies us sinners. But in the face of this greatest fear, Jesus says, “trust.” That is the attitude of a person without sin. That is the attitude that God wanted us to have from the beginning in regard to our transition to the next world. The death that God didn’t invent and doesn’t want is the horrible death that generates lack of trust. And throughout the Bible, we are told in all circumstances, in all the ups and downs of life, and at the moment of death to trust in the Lord. Trust in God turns the terror of death into falling asleep. Second, after disregarding the news of the death of Jairus’ daughter, Jesus meets the mourners. Back in his time, there were professional mourners who were called upon to mourn when someone died. Their job is to publicly wail and express the grief of the family. Jesus meets them and says, “The child is not dead but asleep.” Understandably, the crowd ridiculed and laughed at him. If you visit a family that has lost a 12 year old child, and you tell them that their child is not dead but asleep, they will be insulted and would find your comment utterly ridiculous. That’s what happened here. Jesus was mocked and laughed at for saying what he said. But Jesus sends them all out, approaches the dead body of the little girl, touches her by the hand and says to her in Aramaic, “Talitha Koum,” which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise.” She hears Jesus and comes back to life as though waking up from sleep. How did the mourners see death? They saw death as something terribly horrible. How did Jesus see it? He sees it as falling asleep. This tells us how God sees our transition from this dimension of time and space to the next. God sees death as dormition, as “falling asleep” in anticipation of the greater life to come. We close our eyes here on earth and open them up in the next. Those whose sins are forgiven will definitely experience death as “falling asleep” here and waking up in heaven. What death did God not create? It is the terrible death of alienation from God. For the saints, death is simply a happy and peaceful transition from one world that is unstable to another that is utterly stable. 

God bless you!