Homily

We sing it over and over: "Christ is risen from the DEAD, by DEATH He conquered DEATH, and to those in the GRAVES He granted life." Notice the words, "dead . . . death . . . death . . . graves." And the word LIFE only appears once — 20% of those words in the tropar are about death. I think one of the reasons for that is that we are mostly afraid of death, of course, either our own end and/or perhaps the death of other people too. I'm not ready to say I have absolutely no fear of death. I understand having the fear of death and I think we are all people who would generally favor a "no death" policy if it were offered to us. I think the "Christ is risen" tropar mentions death so much in order to assure us of our ultimate victory over death, in the Resurrection. So we won't be afraid.

Of course we all will die. We have a Savior, Who, though truly immortal God, chose to die for us as a man. And he did not choose to die peacefully, quietly, surrounded by family and friends. He allowed himself to be killed in an extraordinarily brutal and painful way, not only physically but psychologically as well. He was mocked by his enemies as He hung dying on the cross. Only a few stood by Him. The rest ran away. We have a Savior Who understands death.

We live in a society that more and more, has no idea of what to think of death. It is so important, and yet is so unmentionable. So many people don’t know where it fits into the plan of their lives and so it’s not surprising they do away with anything that might remind them of their own death. We have allowed more and more murders through abortion, we have allowed more and more people to kill themselves and call it mercy, and yet we only do so because that’s about other people, not about me. We can view images of people being brutally killed in the most graphic ways on tv and film which are as bloody and revolting as any of the games of ancient Rome in the Coliseum, but that’s not me being killed. Funerals are abandoned because it cuts a little too close to home to be reminded by someone we know that we too will fall into death. No way. “A memorial will be held at some time in the future.” Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, don’t think about it…. that’s all you need to do. We have millions of ways to distract ourselves.

We have seen this tremendous fear of death acting out most forcefully this past year during the pandemic. Sometimes I think that some people, especially those in the media and in politics, want us to believe that no one can die from anything but the Covid virus. As I wonder about why this is, I have to think a major reason is because most of the people in the media and in politics do not understand how this could possibly be happening to us, we the modern people who are so educated, advanced and scientifically superior. How could this unexpected danger come to be? But even more importantly so many have absolutely no idea where death fits into their own lives, nor the lives of other people. So it’s time to be afraid. Be very afraid. We are no longer in control as we thought we were.

I was so struck this year by the passage from Hebrews that is read several times during these past holy days: Hebrews 2: 14-15 “Since therefore the children shared flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared the same things, so that through death He might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by the fear of death.” So if the devil has the power of death, those whose lives are governed by the fear of death are his slaves, whether they know it or not. What striking words those are! Living by the fear of death makes Satan our master, and we become his slaves. And I think that this is powerfully seen today in our culture. More and more people claim the right to do things that were traditionally considered harmful or evil, and for them this is freedom. But from where I sit it looks to me like slavery, not freedom. These lives matter, but those lives do not. That’s an evil that is sold to us as freedom, but it’s lie from the Father of Lies.

As I grow older, I do think more and more about death, and my own death. It is a good thing for my spiritual life, because death is really real and it’s good to think about things that are really real. I have no idea how my death will happen, of course, only God knows. But it could be some Sunday when you notice I am not here and it is time to start Liturgy. Someone comes over to the house and goes inside, and then they say, “Lord, have mercy! Did he never use a vacuum?” It is fine to have a healthy fear of death, to take care of our lives. But we can only have a healthy fear of death if we are spiritually healthy. Otherwise, we risk slavery.

So I think it’s good to consider our own death from time to time, rather than whistling in the dark and hoping that somehow it all turns out okay. We are the ones who have the choice to make sure it all comes out okay. If we want it to come out okay, we must come to Christ. If we want to end well, we must live well. If we do not want to labor as slaves, then we need to become better servants of the Master who offers us freedom.

This is absolutely contrary to the philosophy of our age. And more and more so as time goes on. We see people we know drift away from the Church and from Christ, we see young people who reject the faith in favor a life without God’s guidance. We should pray for them, absolutely. But we must also be the people who can show what it means to live in the freedom of Christ, and that we were born out of the love of God, to live as people who love God back, and love our neighbor for the sake of God. We need to be examples of courageous love, self-sacrifice, and generous charity. But most of all, I think, we need to be the people who live as those who believe that Christ is risen from the dead, and He alone has conquered death. He is our hope, He is our life, He is our freedom.

I have often thought about why you all sing “Christ is risen” with such great enthusiasm during this holy season. I think the reason is, even though we often wander a bit off the path of our Christian pilgrimage, as followers of Christ, we know deep down in the very core of our soul that He has conquered death and that has given us that freedom. Let us continue to live as free people – and ask the Lord to give us every grace we need to continue in that freedom.

So today we are challenged to lay aside our fears about death, because Christ has conquered death and even though we're not yet in our graves, He still wants to grant us life, His divine life, the fullness of a life completely saturated with grace. And if we have any fears about that kind of total dedication, we are also invited to lay those fears aside, so that the love of Christ and our desire to love Christ overcomes the weakness of our sinful condition. We may not yet be ready to take that total plunge as disciples of the Lord, but we can climb higher up the ladder that leads us to that spiritual diving board. Today is a great opportunity to commit ourselves even more closely to the Lord and surrender even more of ourselves to His gentle yoke. Let us not be afraid of death. Let us not be afraid to really live.