Monday of the Fourth Week of Lent
(Isaiah 65:17-21; John 4:43-54)
The Prospect of Immortality was written over forty years ago in an age of extravagant optimism. It describes the possibility of deep-freezing people at death so that they may be thawed when cures for their ailments are discovered. Since then, to my knowledge, there have been no accounts of successful revitalization. However, there have been reports of rotting cadavers of people who paid to have their dead bodies frozen. Despite this dismal reality, the book remains in print!
It has been said that no one will get out of this world alive. Then what of our belief in the resurrection? In the first reading, Isaiah offers the springboard to this belief. God -- the prophet tells us -- will create a new earth where people live hundreds of years. We believe that this new creation has been actualized in Jesus Christ. He saves people from death as we see in the gospel today. He raises people from the dead as we shall hear in next Sunday’s gospel. And he will rise from the dead himself to live in eternal glory. We can assure ourselves that there is no “prospect of immortality” besides the hope of the resurrected Jesus redeeming us from death.
We have entered the final weeks of Lent. Now we focus not so much on the sacrifices we make but on all that Jesus promises. Most wonderfully he promises us everlasting life with him. Like the royal official of the gospel, let us not demand that he accompany us physically in our needs. Rather, let us trust that he will be there to rescue us from death when we conform our ways to his.
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