THE END OF DEATH!
MYSTERIOUS OR PASCHAL
APPROACH TO DEATH
Even in the New Testament, we can find “sapiential” words referring to death, like in the Old Testament. These may have been thoughts derived from Ecclesiastes or Sirach.
But this is not the novelty!
When Jesus died on the cross for us, when “one died for all” then all things changed radically and death itself became a new thing.
Jesus had spoken of his death as a Passover “exodus” (Lk 9,31) and John oriented his whole gospel in a way that clearly shows that Jesus’ death on the cross is the new passover (In Latin, pascha). The evangelist changed the meaning of the word passover (pascha) to mean the death of Jesus: Passover is the “passage of Jesus from this world to the Father” (Jn 13, 1).
Passover and death of Jesus are two words intimately united in the minds of the first Christians.
Jesus’ Passover derived from his suffering (passio) and is called such because of the event of Christ’s death on the cross.
It is not only the name of death that changed but also its nature.
The philosopher insists that man is born to die, the exact antithesis or opposite of the Christian vision.
It is said of Christ that he was born to be able to die (St. Gregory of Nyssa), which meant that Christ, being God, took on mortal flesh to be able to struggle and triumph against death.
Death is attached to Christ; it has devoured him, as it has done to all other men. But it could not “digest” him because in him was God and thus, he could not remain killed.
“With the Spirit who could not die, Christ has killed death which kills men.” (Meliton of Sardis)
“Death has killed him in the flesh that he has assumed. But with the same weapon, he triumphed over death. Divinity was born under humanity and became close to death which killed it and was in turn killed. Death killed natural life, but it was killed by supernatural life. Since death could not swallow the Word without the body, and hell could not welcome it without the flesh, he was born of the Virgin, to be able to descend, through the body, to hell.” (St. Ephrem the Syrian)
Western and Eastern liturgy synthesized this dramatic vision in an often-repeated Easter verse: Dying he destroyed death!
Human death is not anymore the same as before. A decisive event intervened. In faith, the incredible newness is welcomed, that only the coming of God on earth could cause.
1 Cor 15,55: Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?
Truly, Christ has swallowed death up in victory to destroy it.
God has eliminated death forever; and this is most precisely and dramatically applied to the death of Christ.
The final wall has been pulled down. There are 3 walls of separation between us and God:
– That of nature
– That of sin
– That of death
By becoming man, Christ has pulled down the wall of nature by joining divine and human natures in his single person.
Through the cross, the wall of sin was destroyed.
And in his Resurrection, Christ demolished the wall of death.
thanks to Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa, Sorella Morte
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