"Life in the Spirit
transcends even death"
H. H.
John Paul II
General Audience
October 28, 1998
1. “God so loved
the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him
should not perish but have eternal life” (Jn 3:16). In these words
from the Gospel of John, the gift of “eternal life” represents the
ultimate purpose of the Father’s loving plan. This gift gives us
access through grace to the ineffable communion of love of the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit: “This is eternal life, that
they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have
sent” (Jn 17:3).
The “eternal life” that flows from the Father is communicated to us
in its fullness by Jesus in his paschal mystery through the Holy
Spirit. By receiving it we share in the risen Jesus’ definitive
victory over death. “Death and life”, we proclaim in the liturgy,
“have contended in that combat stupendous: the Prince of life, who
died, reigns immortal” (Sequence for Easter Sunday). In this
decisive event of salvation, Jesus gives human beings “eternal life”
in the Holy Spirit.
2. In the “fullness of time” Christ thus fulfils, beyond all
expectation, that promise of “eternal life” which the Father has
inscribed in the creation of man in his image and likeness since the
beginning of the world (cf. Gn 1:26).
As we sing in Psalm 104, man experiences that life in the cosmos
and, particularly, his own life have their beginning in the “breath”
communicated by the Spirit of the Lord: “When you hide your face,
they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and
return to their dust. When you send forth your Spirit, they are
created; and you renew the face of the earth” (vv. 29-30).
Communion with God, the gift of his Spirit, more and more becomes
for the chosen people the pledge of a life that is not limited to
earthly existence but mysteriously transcends and prolongs it
forever.
In the harsh period of the Babylonian exile, the Lord rekindles his
people’s hope, proclaiming a new and definitive covenant that will
be sealed with an abundant outpouring of the Spirit (cf. Ez
36:24-28): “Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your
graves, O my people; and I will bring you home into the land of
Israel. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I open your
graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people. And I will put
my Spirit within you, and you shall live” (Ez 37:12-14).
With these words God announces the messanic renewal of Israel after
the sufferings of the exile. The symbols used are well suited to
suggesting the faith journey that Israel is slowly making, to the
point of intuiting the truth of the resurrection of the flesh which
the Spirit will accomplish at the end of time.
3. This truth becomes firmly established in the period shortly
before the coming of Jesus Christ (cf. Dn 12:2; 2 Mc 7:9-14, 23, 36;
12:43-45), who vigorously confirms it and rebukes those who deny it:
“Is not this why you are wrong, that you know neither the Scriptures
nor the power of God?” (Mk 12:24). According to Jesus, belief in the
resurrection is based on belief in God, who “is not God of the dead,
but of the living” (Mk 12:27).
Moreover, Jesus links belief in the resurrection to his own person:
“I am the Resurrection and the Life” (Jn 11:25). In him, through the
mystery of his Death and Resurrection, the divine promise of the
gift of “eternal life” is fulfilled. This life implies total victory
over death: “The hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will
hear the voice [of the Son] and come forth, those who have done
good, to the resurrection of life ...” (Jn 5:28-29). “For this is
the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes
in him should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last
day” (Jn 6:40.
4. Christ’s promise will thus be mysteriously fulfilled at the end
of time, when he returns in glory “to judge the living and the dead”
(2 Tm 4:1; cf. Acts 10:42; 1 Pt 4:5). Then our mortal bodies will
live again through the power of the Holy Spirit, who has been given
to us as “the pledge of our inheritance, the first payment against
the full redemption” (Eph 1:14; cf. 2 Cor 1:21-22).
However, there is no need to think that life after death begins only
with the final resurrection. The latter is preceded by the special
state in which every human being finds himself after physical death.
There is an intermediate stage in which, as the body decomposes, “a
spiritual element survives and subsists after death, an element
endowed with consciousness and will, so that the 'human self'
subsists”, although lacking the complement of its body (Sacred
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Letter on Certain
Questions Concerning Eschatology, 17 May 1979: AAS 71 [1979], 941).
Believers also have the certitude that their life-giving
relationship with Christ cannot be destroyed by death but continues
in the hereafter. Christ in fact said: “He who believes in me,
though he die, yet shall he live” (Jn 11:25). The Church has always
professed this belief and has particularly expressed it in the
prayer of praise she offers to God in communion with all the saints
and in her prayer for the dead who are not fully purified. On the
other hand, the Church insists on respect for the mortal remains of
every human being because of the dignity of the person to which they
belonged and because of the honour which is owed the bodies of those
who became temples of the Holy Spirit through Baptism. Particular
evidence of this is the funeral liturgy and the veneration given to
the relics of the saints, which has developed from the earliest
centuries. The latter’s bones, St Paulinus of Nola says, “never lose
the presence of the Holy Spirit, whence a living grace comes to the
sacred tombs” (Carmen XXI, 632-633).
5. Thus we see the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of life not only in
every stage of our earthly existence, but equally so in that state
which, after death, precedes the full life that the Lord has
promised even for our mortal bodies. All the more so, thanks to the
Spirit, we will make in Christ our final “journey” to the Father. St
Basil the Great notes: “If anyone reflects carefully, he will
understand that, even as we await the Lord’s appearing from heaven,
the Holy Spirit will not be absent, as some believe; no, he will
also be present on the day of the Lord’s revelation, when he will
judge the world in justice as its blessed and only sovereign” (De
Spiritu Sancto, XVI, 40).
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To the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors the Holy Father said:
I extend a special greeting to the priests taking part in the
Institute for Continuing Theological Education at the Pontifical
North American College, to the members of the Gregorian University
Foundation, and to the Across Trust. I warmly welcome the Lutheran
visitors from Sweden and the choir from Taiwan. Upon all the
English-speaking pilgrims and visitors, especially those from
England, Ireland, Sweden, Denmark, Malaysia, Belize, Taiwan, Canada
and the United States of America, I invoke the grace and peace of
our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now I would like to invite you to pray with me for several
intentions that are particularly close to my heart:
1. The Mixed Commission of the Orthodox and Greek Catholic Churches
in Romania, established to promote mutual dialogue between the two
communities, is beginning its work today. I commend this initiative
to your prayer, that it may bear the desired fruits for the good of
the Church and of all Roanian society.
2. Four months of armed conflict in Guinea-Bissau have caused
enormous displacements of people. Many have taken refuge in mission
stations, where the ecclesiastical and religious personnel — whom I
strongly encourage — are doing everything possible to alleviate
their suffering. Let us pray together that all the parties in
conflict will put an end to this prolonged suffering.
3. War continues in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, causing
destruction and involving neighbouring countries. Let us beseech the
Queen of Peace to calm hearts and to let the noble quest for
honourable and peaceful solutions prevail over designs to intensify
the conflict.
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