Afterlife at center of faith

In the February 1997 issue of Catholic World Report, James Hitchcock wrote an article critical not only of the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin's policies and theology, but also of his funeral.

"Distinguishing Bernardin's death from that of his predecessors," Hitchcock complained, "was the fact that there were almost no calls, outside the formal text of the liturgy itself, for prayers on behalf of his soul, something which earlier prelates, no matter how self-satisfied they may have seemed, would never have allowed to be overlooked. Bernardin's funeral was the most conspicuous instance of a phenomenon now taken for granted in Catholic circle: with both hell and purgatory implicitly denied, every deceased person is proclaimed as already standing in the presence of God."

I agree with Hitchcock's observations about the funeral. But, as a Scripture scholar, I don't think the shift in emphasis has anything to do with some hypothetical denial of hell or purgatory. Far from being appalled at the change, I rejoice that our rediscovery of biblical Christianity's faith has filtered down into our present funeral celebrations.

New idea

During Jesus' earthly ministry, belief in an afterlife was still relatively new. It had entered Jewish thought and theology only a century and a half before the Galilean carpenter's birth.

Sunday's first reading (Dan 12:1-3) contains one of the earliest biblical mentions of a belief that punishment and reward can reach beyond our earthly existence. Though expressed in apocalyptic images, the author clearly has Yahweh proclaim, "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake; some shall live forever, others shall be an everlasting horror and disgrace." Those "others" certainly don't follow Yahweh.

"The wise shall shine brightly," God promises, "like the splendor of the firmament. And those who lead the many to justice shall be like the stars forever." Eternal rewards await those who give themselves to Yahweh; eternal punishment for those who refuse to do so.

Because the early Christian community believed that those who followed Jesus were also following Yahweh, they believed their reward would be what Daniel had predicted. John expresses this belief in the Gospel (Jn 6:37-40). "this is the will of my Father," Jesus proclaims, "that everyone who looks upon the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life. I will raise that person up on the last day."

Paul expressed the same concept in a significantly different way 35 years before John (Rom 6:3-9). Writing to the Romans, a community he hadn't personally evangelized, Paul reminds his readers of a universal Christian truth. "Are you not aware," he asks, "that we who were baptized with Jesus were baptized into His death? Through baptism into His death, we were buried with Him, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we, too, might live a new life....If we have died with Christ, we believe that we are also to live with Him."

Union with Christ

Paul professes a simple, basic Christian faith: Those who have joined themselves to Jesus by their dying to sin on this earth will continue that union with Him for all eternity. The Apostle has no fear of hell or purgatory, makes no distinction between venial and mortal sin punishment, gives no advice on indulgences, mentions nothing about having "Masses said" for the repose of someone's soul. He just reminds the Romans of Jesus' most important teaching: Life is more powerful than death.

The late Carroll Stuhl-mueller once remarked, "All religious reform revolves around pulling something on the periphery of our faith down into the center of our faith, and pushing other beliefs and practices which are in the center out onto the periphery."

It seems those who planned Cardinal Bernardin's funeral weren't (even "implicitly") denying hell or purgatory. They simply were returning to the biblical faith of our faith-ancestors, people who during their earthly lives were so one with Jesus that they presumed nothing -- not even physical death -- could keep them from being one with Him for all eternity.

I can't think of any belief that Jesus would rather have at the center of our faith.

(10-30-97) [[In-content Ad]]