13th Sunday: God created us to be Alive!

“God did not make death…For God formed [humankind] to be imperishable; the image of [God’s] own nature…”

We are created for Life in God’s own image.   Salvation then must be about truly having life.

Are we living out Jesus’ salvation?  Are we truly, fully alive?

I read an interesting observation several years ago.  That since 9-11, the number of zombie movies and tv shows has grown exponentially.  Prior to 9-11 there were not so many: Dawn of the Dead being the classic.

Now there is “The Walking Dead” and its spin off on Tv.  There are the Resident Evil Movies (personally my favorite), and there is World War Z.

The books, Pride and Prejudice and Zombies.  Many other examples.

The theory is that this fear of terrorism entered into our zeitgeist, our psyche as americans.  

We know zombies are those dead who walk and try consume those who live.  One bite spreads the disease and makes more zombies who want to consume more.

Ever met a zombie?

I have, quite a few.  Actually I think I was a zombie too, for many years:  literally the walking dead.

On the surface, seemingly alive, going through the motions of everyday life.

But underneath, there is a deadness.  This isolation from others, real or imagined.

It’s not because of some government plot or virus unleashed upon the world.

It’s not some space alien taking over our bodies.

It’s not a fantasy, but it is a reality.

There are so many people deadened because they hold onto so much anger; they hold onto their sadness and loss; deadened because they are so scared that the way they want the world to be, isn’t.  

There are so many people scared; feel threatened, which leads to bad choices, immoral choices.

People are deadened because we can turn so inward that all we see is ourselves and nobody else.

All we know is our our anger, our fear, our hurt, our grief.

All we know is our own ego.

God is Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.  God is community in which the persons of God exist together is such as union that they remain as “persons” but are also one.  This is God’s life. This is life.

We are created in God’s own image.  We are created for community. We are created for life.

Life means to be in communion with others.  Fully alive means to be fully engaged with others.

Think about when any of us have most felt truly fully alive, and I would be willing to be bet it involved others.

Now I have climbed mountains.   I have earned achievements in school.  I have had what people call success.

When I felt most alive...when at my ordination people applauded me and and were genuinely happy with me..I felt I was going to explode!’

I bet we felt fully alive when we fell in love!  That rush of energy that comes when we meet that special someone.

I bet we felt fully alive when our children were born, that first time we saw their crying, red, messy little faces.

How about when after a fight with someone, there was forgiveness.

When we helped someone in need.

Fully alive means to be fully engaged.

Our very being as Church acknowledges this.

The Whole Eucharist is about coming to give thanks to God for the gift of life, salvation and community!

Jesus is the way to this life.

He reveals not only God’s very nature but God’s desire that we live in this community; that we be one as God is one.

Consider our Gospel for today; two people restored to life.  A woman who by her illness would have been exiled from the community; now healed can be a part of the same community.

A young girl on the cusp of adult life, struck down.  Jesus restores her to the family; tells them to feed her, meaning take care of her.  She can progress, fall in love, be married, create her own family.

All of Jesus’s “commands” are about creating life.

Jesus teaches us forgiveness so that we can move past our anger and find life in peace.

Jesus teaches us mercy and generosity so that we can move past our own selfishness and find life in assisting others.

Jesus teaches us love, because love conquers all fears, and so we can find life in the world, and not be the pawns of those who use fear to manipulate us.

Jesus also reveals God’s love is so profound, so deep, that there is no way to lose it; personally that helps bring me life from that cloud of depression.

I have also met people who have come back to life; cured of zombie-ism.  They gave up on their need to control the whole world, and found such beauty and joy in the people around them.

They found themselves loved, without having to earn it, or prove it, or buy it.  And they found joy.

I have seen people wrapped up in their sins, and finally understood the power of God’s forgiveness, and the tears flowed.

We are created for life.  There are too many of us caught up in the culture of death, as St. John Paul II wrote of.

Our mission as Catholics is for life.  The best way for us to evangelize is for us to be alive.

Our doors, our church needs to be open to the zombies of this world; to those who hurt, those who are searching, those in need.

Our mission as Pope Francis says many times, is to be the field hospital; to offer a community and place for healing; for life.

Parish life is not necessarily defined by how many programs are going on, but by how much healing and life is being found.

Christian, disciples of Jesus Christ, are those who find life in Jesus, and want to heal a world infected by the dis-ease of self centeredness, infected by a philosophy of “my” rights are the supreme good..

We, hopefully have found life and are alive in Christ;