Wisdom 3:1-9
Romans 5:5-11
John 11:17-27

Bishop Untener's Homily

Well, we may as well find out right away. How many of you, yesterday, were cheering for the University of Michigan - raise your hand. [About a fourth of the hands went up.] Okay. How many were pulling for Michigan State. [Another fourth of the hands went up.] How many didn't care who won? [Half the hands went up.] You see? The worst problem of all is apathy.

Okay. There are things that connect us... connections that go far deeper than what football team we pull for, and those deeper connections are what we are here to celebrate: We're celebrating our connection as disciples of the Lord and, for a lot of us, our connection as alumni of St. Charles School.

 Actually, it's a break that this year, by coincidence, our alumni celebration happens to land on All Souls Day because a lot of the alumni are dead. But we want to keep our connection with them, and we want them to be part of this celebration.

So, let's think together about the connection between this life and the next life... and the connection of the living and the dead. That's what All Souls Day is about - and that's what the Gospel we just heard is about.

What do we believe about all that?

Jewish Belief in Life after Death

You may be surprised to find out that, in Jewish tradition, belief in life after death was quite vague. As a matter of fact, if you go back to the days of Abraham, Moses, David, Solomon, Isaiah... the Jewish people did not really believe in life after death. They didn't know about it. They thought that when a person died, only their memory lived on. (That, by the way, is why it was so important to have children, and why it was considered a curse to be childless.)

The first evidence we have of Jewish belief in life after death appears in the Book of Daniel, which was written only about 150 years before Christ. The author is speaking about what will happen some distant day in the future - the end of time. Here's what he says:

"Many of those who sleep in the in the dust of the earth shall awake. Some shall live forever...  and shall shine brightly like the splendor of the heavens ... and shall be like the stars forever." (Daniel 12:2-3)

The way it's described here in Daniel, after you die you are more or less asleep - something like what happens when your computer is running on batteries. If you leave it running and go away and do something else, the computer goes into a holding mode. The computer is still on, but the systems shut down and the screen goes dark.

So, what the Book of Daniel is talking about is a delayed life after death. You are "asleep" and awake only later at the end of time. And, as to what kind of life you awaken to, it's quite vague.

 By the time of Jesus, this belief was commonly held by the Jewish people, although some did not believe in any kind of after-life - for example, the Sadducees.  However, most did.

Martha and Mary 

We can see this belief reflected in Martha and Mary when their brother Lazarus dies. Earlier in this story, they had sent for Jesus because Lazarus was sick. What they wanted was a cure for their brother's sickness. But, before Jesus got there, Lazarus died. By the time Jesus arrived, Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days.

Martha is a bit miffed and she says to Jesus, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." In other words, if you had been here, you could have done something. But now it's too late.  He's gone to that in-between state. We have no more connection with him.

Jesus says, "Your brother will rise again." In her response, Martha expresses the Jewish belief in a delayed awakening from death. She says, "I know he will rise again in the resurrection on the last day." 

Jesus and Life After Death

In the light of Jewish belief in what happens after death, it's very interesting to listen carefully to the response of Jesus. He is revealing a new understanding of life after death. It is a remarkable revelation. Jesus says that, because he has entered the human race, we have a new life within us now that is more than the result of our heart ticking and our lungs breathing. And this life that we have now lives right through death. 

How can we human beings have a life that goes on when the heart stops ticking and the lungs stop breathing and the brain waves are dead? Because Jesus gives us God-life, and God-life never dies, never goes into a holding mode. It lives fully and forever. Jesus says to Martha:

"I am the resurrection and the life [the life is God-life].  Whoever believes in me, even if they die [that is, die physically]... will live [he's talking about the God-life continuing]. And everyone who lives [who has not yet physically died, but already has God-life in them]... will never die [the physical death doesn't end the God-life]."

As you know, Jesus will then bring Lazarus back to physical life. But the main point of the raising of Lazarus is not to show that Jesus can raise a dead man back to this life. The main point of the raising of Lazarus is to teach that Jesus here and now can overcome death. It's a sign that he gives us a life now that will never die, because he gives us a share in God's own life. Lazarus will one day die again, but so what? Jesus gives us a life now that lives right through death. When we die, we still have God-life running through us, and this is a life that does not die.

That is a stunning revelation. And Jesus says it not just here in the Lazarus story. He says it over and over again, especially in John's Gospel. I'll read just two examples, and perhaps we can hear them with new ears: 

• Speaking of himself as the Good Shepherd caring for his sheep, Jesus says: "I give them eternal life [here and now], and they shall never perish. No one can take them out of my hand." (10:28)
• Another time, after curing a crippled man on the Sabbath Jesus says to his critics: "I say to you ... whoever hears my word and believes in the One who sent me has eternal life [note that he speaks of life right now, not in the future] and has passed from death to life." (5:24)

St. Charles Alumni

Back to our alumni - all the alumni - especially those who are dead.

A lot of them were baptized in that baptismal font back there in the corner. Baptism isn't simply a ceremony that initiates someone into the Church. It is a ceremony that celebrates the gift of receiving God-life here and now.

A lot of the alumni were confirmed at this communion rail (that's the way they we were confirmed back then). Confirmation isn't, as sometimes it was talked about, simply becoming an adult in the Church. Confirmation is a special pouring of the Spirit - God-life - upon us here and now.

They came here in this church to Eucharist. Coming to Mass isn't simply fulfilling an obligation of the Church. We come to be with the Lord, as the disciples at the Last Supper. And every time those alumni came forward to receive Communion, the risen, living, Lord Jesus Christ was taken into their whole self... and if receiving the risen, living, Lord Jesus Christ into us  isn't receiving God-life here and now, then there isn’t nothing that gives us God-life.

And when we come together right now in the celebration of Eucharist, there is a connection with the whole Church, including those who have died. We believe that at the Eucharist, time and space dissolve, and the whole Church - around the world, living and dead - is celebrating this "thanksgiving meal" together. This church right now is more crowded than it looks.

At the end of John's Gospel, the most amazing thing happens. The author of the Gospel walks out on stage and speaks to us. He really does - it's part of the Gospel. He comes right out here and speaks to the readers of his Gospel. Listen to what he says.

"Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through this belief, you may have life in his name."

Originally given on November 2, 2003