Genesis 3 describes the entry of death into the world. Death is the absence of life. If God can be considered sinless, then God-lessness is sin and sin is the absence of God.
Death was not always present The first 2 chapters of the Bible were pre-death. Note the curse - "Because you..[sinned]..to dust you will return" Genesis 3:17-19. But God did not originally create man to die. He created man to live forever. [That must explain why its so painful to die: because cells need to degenerate,
the muscles, the tissues, made for eternity, needs to deteriorate, the body originally meant to be preserved forever, must now be broken, torn apart, and life choked out of it, before death can finally come!]
If we had not sinned, we would not have known death[separation from life]. So, theoretically, if we do not sin, we should not die. In other words, if we are never separated from God, we would never die. Is this true? We do not have any teaching about any original sin, we believe we have inherited a world which is sinful (separated from God), we have inherited the consequences of sin. Thus theoretically at least, each person has a shot at beating death.
Separation from God causes Death God tried to test this theory on man. He took care of man, made clothes for him to wear, guided him, gave him laws - all designed to keep man close to Himself, so that sin is kept away. But man also had the choice - the free will, and man chose to sin. Man's choices kept him as a mortal, as a slave of death. Every one born,succumbed to sin and hence death.
Even unborn babies and those who do not get an opportunity to choose to sin, they also die because - even in their situation, they experience the separation from God, because of their environment, because of their parents and the sinful world around; and since they are thus separated from God, they have the stain of sin(in however small measure) and hence they too die.
He Himself shows the Way Finally God Himself became man "born of a woman, born under the Law". He lived, just like the rest - but at every instance, He chose not to sin. He was tempted by the Devil Himself, but He chose not to deny God. He was never ever separated from God, not even for an instant. Thus He alone had no stain of sin. He alone walked the earth without sin, not because He was God (which He was completely),
but because He chose never to sin, never to be separated from God.
When the Sinless One's life was taken from His body, when He was so cruelly and unjustly nailed to the cross, in an act where the Devil must have felt a great sense of satisfaction (because if the Devil feels great satisfaction in inflicting pains and horrors on ordinary people who are sinners, how much more pleasure would he have felt to inflict pain after pain on the only one ever whom he could never subdue into sin), this Sinless One became the only one ever to pass into the gates of death without sin. The gates of death could not keep him in Sheol, because He was too mighty, He was sinless - death has no power over a sinless one. He went into the Gates of Hell without ever separating from God, He
went into death, with God, as God.
But God is the absence of sin. Its like saying Light entered darkness. If light enters darkness, the darkness disappears. Thus Death could not hold the sinless one. The Sinless One tore open the gates of Death that had held man in bondage since that fateful Friday at Eden. (We assign that fateful day of gloom as Friday in our Liturgy, connecting it to the gloom on the Death of the Master on the Cross on Friday, we do not worry about when the original day of fall was, but it could well have been Friday, since God's ways are well connected, and Liturgy sometimes reveals through faith what history cannot through facts)
Jesus - the savior of people from sins Thus the Sinless One bore death, and vanquished death. But how did the Sinless One become "Jesus"? Remember the words of the angel"you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" St. Matthew 1:21. Yes He vanquished death, because He chose not to sin. He was the seed of the woman who bruised the head of the serpent as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. But How did He "save the people from their sins?", which was the reason the angel said He should be named "Jesus".
The real victory That was the other defeat of Satan which the Lord inflicted. That was His true victory. He not only showed that death can be overcome by our choices, He paved a way for us to actually do it. We were hopelessly bound in sin. On our own, we could not defeat death. But in an unassuming night on what was to be His last Passover Feast on earth, He started a task that was to prove the ultimate victory against the Devil and Death. Just like in the beginning of Creation He commanded "let there be light" and light was created in an instant; so did He, the very same Creator, utter the words "this is my Body" over the bread which He had blessed, and utter "this is my blood" over the cup of wine which He had
blessed, and they became so in an instant. He then gave it to His disciples and said "do this in remembrance of me". He instituted the Holy Eucharist.
Then after He had ascended to His Father, when the Holy Spirit was sent to the world in His fullness, the Holy Spirit "reminded" the disciples of His words, and inspired them to reconnect to the Lord through the sacrament and participate in the life of the Lord.
The Eucharist is the Victory over death The Creator commanded the ordinary bread and wine to become His own Body and Blood. They became so instantly. When the Fulfiller of all things inspired ordinary men to utter the same words as the Creator, He made the powerful Word of God to act on the ordinary bread and wine each time, and convert them into the Living Holy Body and Holy Blood of the Creator, the Sinless One, just like
the first time. It is an experience outside of the dimensions of time. When the faithful commune in the Sacrament, they become part of the Sinless One, His Body becomes our body, and thus even though we are sinners, because of the Sinless One, we are able to overcome death. It is like, when we physically 'die', He carries us within Him through the gates of Death, shattering it, breaking it
open and releasing us from its power, just like He did when He died. The Holy Eucharist is the realization of the true Victory against Death. Remember His words "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life"
And thus He saves people from their sins, by joining them as part of Himself, by Himself making the journey for them. He becomes "Jesus", the savior of people from their sins, through the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is the celebration of the victory over death. Satan has been decieved and defeated in the Eucharist. Satan's defeat is proclaimed in the celebration of the Eucharist.
Death is toothless now Thus death entered the world because of the first sin. Death has tormented us since then. But through the Eucharist, we have a way out. We pass through death by being in Christ, we pass through death with Christ, and then stay on with Christ - that is how St. Paul knows He will "depart and be with
Christ"(Philippians 1:23), till He comes back to "raise [us] on the last day"(St. John 6:40) bodily, transforming our corrupted bodies into glorified ones like His was transformed. It is our hope that we are found worthy, by His mercy.
God is LoveWe know of the all encompassing and infinite Love of God which made Him to come down to us. So we may feel, In His Love, He can really bypass death and save us anyways? No, the horror of the Cross should drive home to us how important this is. Unless we are in Him and He is in Us in the real manner as in the Holy Eucharist, death still has the hold over us like before. He was very very
serious when He said that "I am the Way" and "apart from me you can do nothing". Our only hope is to cling onto him, and it has to happen in a more intense manner than a mere intellectual or emotional bonding to him. It has to happen at all levels - it has to happen via the Holy Eucharist.
What about the others?We have this lingering question - what happens then to those who do not receive the Eucharist, those who have never known the Eucharist, those who have gone away from the Eucharist etc.
We have been shown this Way. The Church knows of no other way, but we can hope and trust in the Lord that there maybe another plan for those who genuinely did not get enough opportunities for the Eucharist. The only proper response is, the Church has not been told about that part of the plan of God, if one exists. So we can only submit in prayer.
The Deceiver is still at largeSo the Deceiver stands at the gate of the Church, to prevent us from participating in the Eucharist, because that is his only chance at survival. He will do anything to keep people away from the Eucharist. He will even use the name of Jesus, because He knows that once he keeps people away from the Eucharist, he can slowly, but surely, indoctrinate them again and get them back into death.
Know the deception of the Devil. Know his defeat in the Eucharist. Know the power of the Eucharist. Come back to the Eucharist, for there-in lies life. That is the Way the Lord created to win over death. Haleluiah.
Mathew Samuel, Albany, NY
Death was not always present The first 2 chapters of the Bible were pre-death. Note the curse - "Because you..[sinned]..to dust you will return" Genesis 3:17-19. But God did not originally create man to die. He created man to live forever. [That must explain why its so painful to die: because cells need to degenerate,
the muscles, the tissues, made for eternity, needs to deteriorate, the body originally meant to be preserved forever, must now be broken, torn apart, and life choked out of it, before death can finally come!]
If we had not sinned, we would not have known death[separation from life]. So, theoretically, if we do not sin, we should not die. In other words, if we are never separated from God, we would never die. Is this true? We do not have any teaching about any original sin, we believe we have inherited a world which is sinful (separated from God), we have inherited the consequences of sin. Thus theoretically at least, each person has a shot at beating death.
Separation from God causes Death God tried to test this theory on man. He took care of man, made clothes for him to wear, guided him, gave him laws - all designed to keep man close to Himself, so that sin is kept away. But man also had the choice - the free will, and man chose to sin. Man's choices kept him as a mortal, as a slave of death. Every one born,succumbed to sin and hence death.
Even unborn babies and those who do not get an opportunity to choose to sin, they also die because - even in their situation, they experience the separation from God, because of their environment, because of their parents and the sinful world around; and since they are thus separated from God, they have the stain of sin(in however small measure) and hence they too die.
He Himself shows the Way Finally God Himself became man "born of a woman, born under the Law". He lived, just like the rest - but at every instance, He chose not to sin. He was tempted by the Devil Himself, but He chose not to deny God. He was never ever separated from God, not even for an instant. Thus He alone had no stain of sin. He alone walked the earth without sin, not because He was God (which He was completely),
but because He chose never to sin, never to be separated from God.
When the Sinless One's life was taken from His body, when He was so cruelly and unjustly nailed to the cross, in an act where the Devil must have felt a great sense of satisfaction (because if the Devil feels great satisfaction in inflicting pains and horrors on ordinary people who are sinners, how much more pleasure would he have felt to inflict pain after pain on the only one ever whom he could never subdue into sin), this Sinless One became the only one ever to pass into the gates of death without sin. The gates of death could not keep him in Sheol, because He was too mighty, He was sinless - death has no power over a sinless one. He went into the Gates of Hell without ever separating from God, He
went into death, with God, as God.
But God is the absence of sin. Its like saying Light entered darkness. If light enters darkness, the darkness disappears. Thus Death could not hold the sinless one. The Sinless One tore open the gates of Death that had held man in bondage since that fateful Friday at Eden. (We assign that fateful day of gloom as Friday in our Liturgy, connecting it to the gloom on the Death of the Master on the Cross on Friday, we do not worry about when the original day of fall was, but it could well have been Friday, since God's ways are well connected, and Liturgy sometimes reveals through faith what history cannot through facts)
Jesus - the savior of people from sins Thus the Sinless One bore death, and vanquished death. But how did the Sinless One become "Jesus"? Remember the words of the angel"you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins" St. Matthew 1:21. Yes He vanquished death, because He chose not to sin. He was the seed of the woman who bruised the head of the serpent as prophesied in Genesis 3:15. But How did He "save the people from their sins?", which was the reason the angel said He should be named "Jesus".
The real victory That was the other defeat of Satan which the Lord inflicted. That was His true victory. He not only showed that death can be overcome by our choices, He paved a way for us to actually do it. We were hopelessly bound in sin. On our own, we could not defeat death. But in an unassuming night on what was to be His last Passover Feast on earth, He started a task that was to prove the ultimate victory against the Devil and Death. Just like in the beginning of Creation He commanded "let there be light" and light was created in an instant; so did He, the very same Creator, utter the words "this is my Body" over the bread which He had blessed, and utter "this is my blood" over the cup of wine which He had
blessed, and they became so in an instant. He then gave it to His disciples and said "do this in remembrance of me". He instituted the Holy Eucharist.
Then after He had ascended to His Father, when the Holy Spirit was sent to the world in His fullness, the Holy Spirit "reminded" the disciples of His words, and inspired them to reconnect to the Lord through the sacrament and participate in the life of the Lord.
The Eucharist is the Victory over death The Creator commanded the ordinary bread and wine to become His own Body and Blood. They became so instantly. When the Fulfiller of all things inspired ordinary men to utter the same words as the Creator, He made the powerful Word of God to act on the ordinary bread and wine each time, and convert them into the Living Holy Body and Holy Blood of the Creator, the Sinless One, just like
the first time. It is an experience outside of the dimensions of time. When the faithful commune in the Sacrament, they become part of the Sinless One, His Body becomes our body, and thus even though we are sinners, because of the Sinless One, we are able to overcome death. It is like, when we physically 'die', He carries us within Him through the gates of Death, shattering it, breaking it
open and releasing us from its power, just like He did when He died. The Holy Eucharist is the realization of the true Victory against Death. Remember His words "Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life"
And thus He saves people from their sins, by joining them as part of Himself, by Himself making the journey for them. He becomes "Jesus", the savior of people from their sins, through the Holy Eucharist. The Holy Eucharist is the celebration of the victory over death. Satan has been decieved and defeated in the Eucharist. Satan's defeat is proclaimed in the celebration of the Eucharist.
Death is toothless now Thus death entered the world because of the first sin. Death has tormented us since then. But through the Eucharist, we have a way out. We pass through death by being in Christ, we pass through death with Christ, and then stay on with Christ - that is how St. Paul knows He will "depart and be with
Christ"(Philippians 1:23), till He comes back to "raise [us] on the last day"(St. John 6:40) bodily, transforming our corrupted bodies into glorified ones like His was transformed. It is our hope that we are found worthy, by His mercy.
God is LoveWe know of the all encompassing and infinite Love of God which made Him to come down to us. So we may feel, In His Love, He can really bypass death and save us anyways? No, the horror of the Cross should drive home to us how important this is. Unless we are in Him and He is in Us in the real manner as in the Holy Eucharist, death still has the hold over us like before. He was very very
serious when He said that "I am the Way" and "apart from me you can do nothing". Our only hope is to cling onto him, and it has to happen in a more intense manner than a mere intellectual or emotional bonding to him. It has to happen at all levels - it has to happen via the Holy Eucharist.
What about the others?We have this lingering question - what happens then to those who do not receive the Eucharist, those who have never known the Eucharist, those who have gone away from the Eucharist etc.
We have been shown this Way. The Church knows of no other way, but we can hope and trust in the Lord that there maybe another plan for those who genuinely did not get enough opportunities for the Eucharist. The only proper response is, the Church has not been told about that part of the plan of God, if one exists. So we can only submit in prayer.
The Deceiver is still at largeSo the Deceiver stands at the gate of the Church, to prevent us from participating in the Eucharist, because that is his only chance at survival. He will do anything to keep people away from the Eucharist. He will even use the name of Jesus, because He knows that once he keeps people away from the Eucharist, he can slowly, but surely, indoctrinate them again and get them back into death.
Know the deception of the Devil. Know his defeat in the Eucharist. Know the power of the Eucharist. Come back to the Eucharist, for there-in lies life. That is the Way the Lord created to win over death. Haleluiah.
Mathew Samuel, Albany, NY
