In
the old version of Star Trek (and I think it is still the
same) captain Kirk and his crew were able to be beamed from the Starship Enterprise onto a nearby planet or another ship. The
idea behind this was that the machine they used to do this—called
the ‘transporter’—was a sophisticated computer that was able to
scan a person’s complete makeup and memorize the exact structure of
the whole person. Then it changed this information into energy which
it beamed to another place and then re-assembled the person; pretty
clever. In fact scientists agree that in reality it would be
impossible to do this because the human body is way too complicated.
No computer could possibly store or analyse all the information in a
single person.
Our
Christian faith tells us that God is able to store and maintain the
unique pattern that is at the core of each one of us, even after the
earthly body dies. That unique pattern that makes up the core of each
of us we call the soul or spirit. Then after our earthly body dies
the Lord gives us a new body in the place we call heaven, for those
who choose to go there; and we choose to go there by the way we live.
If
God cannot do that then our earthly death would be the complete end
of us. But we believe that God can and will do that. That is what
makes the miracle of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead such a
mind-boggling one. That is why the celebration of Easter is such a
big event and is often called ‘the great miracle’. It was not
automatic that Jesus would be raised from the dead, but it did happen
because God worked an extraordinary miracle.
We
often wonder what it will be like in the next world. Will it be like
here, but only better? In this Gospel the Sadducees who did not
believe in the resurrection, are arguing among themselves and they
put this idea of the resurrection to Jesus. So they give him a
ridiculous example to make a point. It is a kind of test case. They
presumed that because their example was so absurd, Jesus would have
to admit that the idea of the resurrection just did not add up. But
what Jesus basically said was ‘You are trying to figure out the
next life in earthly terms; but you cannot do that.’ It is so
different that we cannot even begin to think what it would be like.
Think
of how a caterpillar goes into the chrysalis and then turns into a
butterfly. You would not recognise one from the other; they are so
different. You plant an acorn, but then a tree grows out of the
ground. When Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday,
she didn’t recognise him. When he appeared to the two disciples on
the road to Emmaus, they didn’t recognise him either. He was
different. He wasn’t just a human body brought back to life, but
something quite different: what we call a ‘glorified’ body.
There
is a friend of mine that I grew up with who is now a consultant
pathologist. They study the science of disease and do the
post-mortem’s when someone dies. Before his wedding we were talking
about different arrangements for the mass and he told me that he
could not believe in the idea of the resurrection, because from a
scientist’s point of view, it was impossible. I was impressed with
his honesty about it. I suppose he was caught where the Sadducees
were also caught. He was trying to figure out the after-life and the
spiritual world, in earthly terms. This doesn’t work because it is
completely different and we only know what is earthly, so it is very
difficult for us to get our minds around the spiritual world because
we have no experience of it.
That
is why God asks us to believe without understanding. That’s what
faith is. God is saying, ‘Will you trust me on this?’ We
would not be able to understand it even if it was explained to us
because it is completely beyond our understanding. It would be like
explaining a complicated physics or maths problem to a toddler. No
matter how well you explained it he or she would simply not be
capable of understanding it.
We
believe in life after death because Jesus has taught us about it and
because He appeared to the Apostles after his death and to so many
others down through the centuries to tell us, ‘This is real.
Believe it and know that this life is waiting for you after you die
if you choose it.’
A
surprising number of people, who even call themselves Christian, do
not believe in life after death. If we don’t believe that something
happens after death, then it is pretty pointless being here now at
this mass, because each mass we celebrate is a continual reminder
that we believe in a life after this one which we are already
preparing for. This also gives us great hope for those who have died,
that we will be united with them again. This is a hope that we must
hold onto. Every time we celebrate the mass we become present to the
event that made life after death possible. We become present at
the death of Jesus on Calvary. Time stands still and we are there.
Without this sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary we would not be able to go
to heaven when we die and be reunited with those we love.
I
want to finish with this quotation from a man called John Owen, who
was a great Puritan minister. When he lay dying he was dictating some
last letters to friends. He said to his secretary:
‘Write: ‘I am still in the land
of the living’.
Then
he stopped and said: ‘No, change that to read:
‘I am still in the land of those
who die,
but I hope soon to be in the land of the living’.’
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