The promise of everlasting life

Scripture for Mass

Ezekiel 37:12-14

Psalm 130(129):1-2. 3-4. 5-6b. 6c-8. Response: 7bc

Romans 8:8-11

John 11:1-45

The considerable increase in the average human lifespan in many countries in recent decades has led to the hope of an even bigger increase during the coming decades. Rapid advances in science and medicine have even led a few to speculate that someday humans will be able to prevent or reverse the aging process resulting in the tantalising possibility that at least some people might never die.

Behind such speculation lies a fascination with immortality, a deep longing in the human heart for eternal life. It is a yearning that finds expression in every age and in various cultures through myths and legends as well as funeral customs and monuments.

Confronted with the transience of life as he drew close to the tomb of Lazarus, Jesus experienced profound sorrow. However, he also became aware of a deep desire to restore the life of someone who had been very dear to him, and of an even deeper longing to keep not only Lazarus but all people alive forever.

Jesus’s declaration about the purpose of his mission, ‘I came that they might have life, and have it to the full’ (Jn. 10:10), found concrete expression in his dedicated service to the poor and the oppressed, the sick and the sinners.  Then, at the tomb of Lazarus, he radically expanded the common understanding of that statement with the pronunciation, ‘whoever lives and believes in me will never die’ (Jn. 11:26).

This promise, like early morning rays of Easter sunlight, radiates the deepest longings of the human heart, daring us to hope.