STRENNA
2007
by Pascual Chávez Villanueva
LOVING LIFE
THE TRIUMPH
OF LIFE
“Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee”(Lk. 24,5-6).
God, the lover of life, as the author of the Book of Wisdom describes Him, is not only its creator and its support, He is also its future. It is precisely this prospect of a life without end that makes attractive and convincing, and at the same time fills with significance human efforts to promote life, to defend it and to educate for it. A victory over death, as nowadays science is trying to achieve, would not be much use were it not to help the dead of past generations. From the beginning of creation, the Creator revealed Himself as a God who loves life, creates it and even re-creates it after death. This is the meaning of the resurrection. While from the beginning man seemed destined to fall victim to death, the only one who really believes in life and also sustains it beyond death is God Himself.
The deep desire of man to live for ever has been expressed throughout history in a great variety of ways, through the cult of the dead, through biological offspring and, not least, through scientific research aimed at prolonging life, defeating sickness, producing well-being, developing self awareness. In the religion of Zoroaster, the fight between Good and Evil, between Ormuz and Ariman, has its counterpart on the human level in the conflict between the good and the bad, and those who die in the cause of right are promised resurrection.
In the Old Testament the influence of Persian culture and religion during the period of the conquest of Israel, between 539 and 333 B C., can be observed in some of the books, such as the Maccabees and Daniel, which for the first time speak about believers who do not hesitate to challenge death while remaining faithful to Jahvé, convince that He will not disappoint them, and which speak implicitly or explicitly about resurrection (2Mac 7,22-23; 12,43; Dan 12,2).
Certainly, there were already some other texts in Scripture that spoke in the same terms, such as Psalm 15 in which the believer proclaims his hymn of trust: “For you will not leave my soul among the dead, nor let your beloved know decay. You will show me the path of life, the fullness of joy in your presence, at you right hand happiness for ever.” (Psalm 15,10-11).
At the time of Jesus, teaching about the resurrection was already part of the heritage of the Jewish faith, even though not accepted by all the groups, for example, the Sadducees (Mk 12,18). Jesus Himself, in his predictions of his passion, refers to his resurrection (Mk (8,31; 9,31; 10,33-34). In fact, at the raising of Lazarus He presented Himself as the Resurrection and the Life (Jn. 11,25).
But the great novelty was the Resurrection, provoked among the disciples a strong unwillingness to believe, as the accounts of the resurrection appearances in all four Gospels bear witness. How could they believe that the person they saw die with a loud cry, nailed to the cross and abandoned by all was alive? It is quite natural that they should find it difficult to believe the testimony of those who had seen him after his death and only in this way had overcome their own incredulity. Rightly it is said that the Resurrection is the definitive and the defining word of God. The definitive word, that is the last because, having raised Jesus from the dead and having defeated death for ever, He has nothing further to say, that is to do. The defining word because bringing to life a dead person who was faithful to Him to the end, He reveals Himself as a God who loves life, creates it and re-creates it when a man loses it for His sake.
This basically is the Good News – good because joyful, splendid, beautiful –: death is not the last word. The resurrection tells us that God does not disappoint the faith of those who believe in Him, nor does He abandon them to the shame of the tomb but raises them up and fills them with life and joy without end. The resurrection therefore is not a truth to be believed in for the afterlife. It is above all a new way of living, passing even now from death to life if we love, conforming our life ever more to that of Jesus the only one who so far has totally conquered death.
Let us rejoice therefore, and let us live life so as to have it to the full. So we shall be able to sing for ever: “Alleluia!”
