God created us. He created us in His image and likeness.
God created us free, with free will because that is the only way we could ever love Him. God wants us to love Him. Only if we are free NOT to love Him, can we choose, freely, to love Him. He created us to love us, and for us to love Him. He created us to live in friendship with Him forever.
The only way to have eternal life is to freely choose Him, to be with Him in all things. This is a choice. If we choose Him, we choose life. If we choose to NOT be with Him, to be separated from Him, to only live for the world, then that is our free choice. But then we don’t choose LIFE.
Listen again to the words from the author of the Book of Wisdom,
God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.
For he fashioned all things that they might have being;
and the creatures of the world are wholesome,
and there is not a destructive drug among them
nor any domain of the netherworld on earth,
… For God formed man to be imperishable;
the image of his own nature he made him.
All too often, our choice is to choose the world or to choose God. Know that the world hates God and all who choose God.
Satan is the Prince of this World. We can’t have it both ways, God AND the world. Listen again to the Book of Wisdom,
But by the envy of the devil, death entered the world,
and they who belong to his company experience it.
We all have a choice in our earthly life. We will each make this choice, one way or another. The consequences are quite different.
The Psalm captures the joy of choosing God.
I will praise you, Lord, for you have rescued me.
I will extol you, O LORD, for you drew me clear
and did not let my enemies rejoice over me.
O LORD, you brought me up from the netherworld;
you preserved me from among those going down into the pit.
Faithful Christians have very different view of death compared to the worldly. St. Paul said,
For to me life is Christ, and death is gain.
This is how we are to learn to view death as Christians. Death is a choice we make. Life is a choice we make. There are consequences for our choices.
St. Mark’s Gospel story of Jesus’ encounter with Jairus gives us more insight.
One of the synagogue officials, named Jairus, came forward.
Seeing him he fell at his feet and pleaded earnestly with him, saying,
“My daughter is at the point of death.
Please, come lay your hands on her
that she may get well and live.”
We read that Jesus was delayed a little on his way to Jairus’ house, with the crowd following and pressing in on him.
There was a woman afflicted with hemorrhages for twelve years. She had suffered greatly at the hands of many doctors
and had spent all that she had.
Yet she was not helped but only grew worse.
For just a moment, let’s ponder this woman’s situation. If she was bleeding for twelve years, she would have been considered “unclean”. She would have been shut out from worship in the synagogue and living apart as if excommunicated. She would have been anemic and weak. We can see how she experienced something like death, close to death, but still living. She had spent all she had to get well but was worse off, living now in poverty.
Still, she had hope when she heard about Jesus. She touched his clothes and was healed. Jesus said her,
“Daughter, your faith has saved you.
Go in peace and be cured of your affliction.”
(Note that our theology of religious relics comes from this Gospel passage.)
Also, remember the woman had suffered for twelve years, the same amount of time as the earthly life of Jairus’ daughter. These two females, the girl and the woman, are linked together. St. Mark tells these two stories together as contrasts to one another. The woman was given back her life by Jesus.
By this time people from Jairus’ house returned, saying to him,
“Your daughter has died; why trouble the teacher any longer?”
But, Jesus said to the synagogue official,
“Do not be afraid; just have faith.”
“Do not be afraid.” Where have we heard that before? Jesus said it frequently. Note that the daughter, now dead in the flesh, did not express faith in Jesus, but her father did, on her behalf. Our faith can save others, not just ourselves. Think about how important funerals are when we pray for our dearly departed.
Jesus entered Jairus’ house and said to those who were mourning the girl’s death,
“Why this commotion and weeping?
The child is not dead but asleep.”
And they ridiculed him.
The world is the dominion of death.
(Jesus) took the child by the hand and said to her, “Talitha koum,”
which means, “Little girl, I say to you, arise!”
The girl, a child of twelve, arose immediately and walked around.
In the Alleluia verse before the Gospel we hear.
Our Savior Jesus Christ destroyed death
and brought life to light through the Gospel.
And, we hear again the words of the Book of Wisdom,
God did not make death,
nor does he rejoice in the destruction of the living.