If We Die with Him, We Shall Reign With Him

Every normal human being wants to live. Every day, we do all sorts of things to take care of our physical life – eat, sleep, work out, take medicine. We want to preserve our life as long as possible. Without life, what good is anything else? We can’t enjoy pleasures, or money, or honors if we are dead. Even Adolf Eichmann, who was one of the architects of the Holocaust, when he was sentenced to death for his war crimes, wrote a letter to the judge pleading for his life. All of us want to live.

And Jesus was no different. In the Garden of Gethsemane, the night before He died, He prayed, “Father, if it is possible, let this cup of suffering pass by me!” He too wanted to preserve His earthly life. But by giving it away, He received it back…in a new and better way.

The Resurrection is not just a resuscitation. Resuscitation is a continuation of your earthly life. When someone has a heart attack and is brought back through CPR, they will eventually die again. Even when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus would eventually pass away.

But Jesus experienced a Resurrection. It was not merely a continuation of His earthly life, but a new way of living with a new type of body. This Body is glorified, transformed. Christ’s Resurrection, then, isn’t just bringing the dead back to life – it brought Him to a new plane of human existence! He is not subject to the tyranny of weakness or pain, hunger or thirst. He can never suffer any injury or illness again. This means that it will never die again – it will live forever.

If you knew that you could never die, or get injured or sick – what would you do? Recently a friend who is a doctor came to see me, and at the end of our meeting she gave me a big hug. Instinctively I jumped back – what about social distancing? Six feet! But she laughed and said, “I’ve been vaccinated – I can hug anyone I want!” How great it can be to live without fear, if we knew we weren’t going to die!

And if you and I are in Christ – living a life united to Him – we too do not need to fear anything either! St. Paul tells us, “If we have died with Christ, we believe that we are also to live with Him.” If we have put to death our old self, our old life of sin and worldliness, and embraced the living God, then His triumph becomes our triumph!

The Catholic Biblical scholar Dr. Jeff Cavins tells a great story about this. Right after his conversion to Catholicism, he sensed that God was calling him to lead a bible study in a local men’s maximum-security prison. The first day, he arrived in a room full of the toughest of tough guys – rippling muscles, tattoos, scowls on their faces. Clearly a room of guys who didn’t want to be messed with. Nervously, somewhat intimidated, he began his Bible study, but one of the guys interrupted and said, “Hey, aren’t you afraid of us?”

            He laughed and said, “No, I’m not.”

            The thug said, “You should be afraid of us.”

            Dr. Cavins replied, “You can’t hurt me. I’m already dead.”

The inmate was confused, and asked what he meant. He replied, “When I became a Christian, I died with Christ…and you can’t hurt a dead man!”

            The inmate laughed and from that time on, he had no problems with the guys.

 If we have already died and risen with Christ, what do we have to fear? Pain? Jesus offers us a heavenly reward after this temporary life. Sadness? Jesus offers us joy beyond our imagining. Sorrow at the loss of a loved one? Jesus promises to wipe away every tear in Heaven. Financial troubles? Jesus has true riches prepared for those who love Him. There is nothing we need to fear – if we are united to Christ.

And here’s the challenge – our lives must really be lived for Him to experience the benefits of His Resurrection. That means seeking Him in daily prayer and weekly Mass; repenting of our sins through Confession, and striving to live a life conformed to His teachings. We will receive back a glorified Body, too, at the end of time – but our glorified bodies will reflect the state of our soul. If our soul is beautiful, our body will be radiant and we will rise to everlasting life; if our soul is corrupted, our body will be grotesque and we will spend eternity in endless death.

So if you want to live, be willing to die. Die to sin, die to selfishness, die to lust and greed and pride. Let Christ live His life in you as you are united to Him through grace and virtue. If we are no longer living our lives but rather living Christ’s life-in-us, then we have nothing to fear. He who conquered death on Easter Sunday morning will conquer death in us as well.

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Originally published at The Cross Stands While the World Turns

Photo: Pierro della Francesca, Wikimedia Commons / PD-US