Life after life

LIFE AFTER LIFE

The unexpected demise of GEORGIE ANIL ABRAHAM came as a shock to all who knew him. He was dear not only to his parents, but to all those who came in contact with him. Georgie was born and brought up in the Gulf. After his college education in Madras Christian College, Chennai, he expressed his desire to pursue Theological studies. He was chosen by the Vaideeka Selection Committee of our Church and he joined the Mar Thoma Vaideeka Seminary at Kottayam. It was during his studies here that he died on 26th January 2007.

What is life? What is life after death? These are questions that come to our mind as we now think about Georgie. We are reminded once again that human life is transitory. We recollect Psalms 103:14-16. “He knows what we are made of; he remembers that we are dust. As for us, our life is like grass. We grow and flourish like a wild flower; then the wind blows on it and it is gone….” St Paul ’s assertion : The first man was from the earth, a man of dust…(1 Corinthians 15:47b).We also read:…the dust returns to the earth as it was. (Ecclesiastes 12:7a).Death is inevitable for a mortal being.

What is death? Death is to be thought of as another phase of life. Whether we understand it or not, we die everyday; and our life on every new day is new life indeed. There are innumerable cells in our body. Each day, our older cells die and are replaced by new cells. Breathing is an exercise that goes on in our lives. We breathe in oxygen and breathe out carbon dioxide. Between these two functions, there is a fraction of a second, when we switch from one process to another, when we are technically dead; and then we come back to life. This is so natural that we do not call it death. Yet there is a miniscule interruption and revival of life.

When someone sneezes, those around him say “Bless you” – an abbreviation for ‘God bless you’. When we sneeze, the time taken for breathing out and for the intervening pause is longer; and so we realize that it is through the grace of God that we obtain the strength to breathe on and continue our earthly life.

When the function of the heart comes to a stop, doctors try to revive its function and they often succeed thereby restoring the span of an individual’s life. This medical ministry is not an action against the will of God, but the repair and retrieval of a gift that God has given. Heart surgery and heart transplantation have become common now and a high percentage of such surgeries are successful. During the course of the surgery, the heart lung machine takes over the respiratory system and the pumping of the heart to keep the person alive. Thus life is sustained in the midst of death, and breath is preserved in the face of death. These medical processes are miraculous happenings and the sanction and blessing of God our Creator is acknowledged. Dr. Paul Brand explains this in his book about Life: “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made”

Life comes as a gift from God. God is the Creator. Georgie’s birth was God’s gift to his parents. Though his mortal life was a short one, I am certain that both Georgie and his parents celebrated his life. Human life is a mixture of several emotions and life grows in the midst of it. In our lives, joys must be celebrated and sorrows borne; our possibilities defined and hopes entertained; our past received and future built. Human beings have no right to take life or to hinder it. The Christian Church does not sanction suicides. The Bible unequivocally says: “Do not kill.” All killing of human life, be it abortion or killing the female foetus, is forbidden.

St. Paul in his Epistle to the Philippians (4:4) says: “Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say rejoice…” There is peace even in the midst of pain and suffering. St. Paul experienced it while he was in prison and in chains. There was peace when Jesus was suffering from pain and dying on the cross.

Life once created by God, grows into eternity. It is both a fact and mystery.

John 11: 25 says, ‘…though we die, yet we shall live.’ How do we understand life? Life is a process that enters into eternity. Life bound by time and space moves into a realm where it is not bound by them. Life belongs to God and the expectation of God is that Life should enter into a full and continuous communion with God. The beauty of creation is that each human being is given a personality with the God given freedom to use it to bother God and even to disobey him. But each person with God given Life and freedom of choice also faces judgment. Those who have faith and live in God enter into eternal life and the others into eternal damnation. Both options are for eternity.

Georgie had faith in God. He was baptized and through the Born Again experience entered into new life in Christ Jesus. He had Christian nurturing, both in his family and the local parish. He was a communicant member of the Church. His call and vision enabled him to take the road to priestly ministry and he was selected to study in the Theological Seminary in Kottayam. Such a person, we believe, is now in the communion of saints, having fellowship with God in His Kingdom. Jesus said, “Whoever believes in me, will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.” John 11:25-26. Life in Christ is eternal life.

Gerogie’s parents K.S.Abraham and Aleyamma, are the two who feel the agony of bereavement more than anyone else. The loss is almost as great for his brother and sister, Ajith Sam Abraham and Anu Susan Abraham. St. Paul says: We sigh with anxiety.” ( II Corinthians 5:4)

Dr. A.S. Sharma in one of his books asks: “Who will cry when you die?” There are always tears when loved ones depart from us. Children cry when they leave home for boarding schools and so do their parents! Relationship is the crux here. Life grows through relationships. All relationships taken positively are life giving and life affirming. In the parable of the lost son Luke Chapter 15) the father sees the time when the younger son was away from home having broken contact with his father and elder brother, as a kind of death “For this my son was dead and is alive again” (Verses 24 and 32).Death breaks up relationships that were given to us. It is in this context that we should understand the importance of the ministry of reconciliation. There is sorrow in heaven when relationships are broken and joy in heaven when relationships are restored.

“Who will cry when you die?” I would say, there should be both joy and sorrow when someone ceases to exist as a mortal being; joy because of the blessings all have received through the life that has moved on, and sorrow because there is rupture in given relationships. Death is not the end of life. It marks the end of our earthly pilgrimage and the opening of the gates leading into our eternal home.

There will be bereavement where there is a spirit of possession. There will be sorrow when there are emotions like ‘our son’ and “my husband”. The poet and philosopher Kahleel Gibran, has said: “Your child is not your child.” This may sound strange, but that is the reality. Your child ultimately belongs to God. When you have the spirit of possession and a feeling of attachment to a person you will feel sorrow and bereavement when that person is detached. This is a human feeling. We read in the Bible regarding marriage that ‘a man will leave his father and mother and will cleave to his wife. And the two will become one. So they are no longer two but one.’ (Mat 19:5,6) Attachment and detachment are the emotions of time bound human beings in this transitory world. Heaven is different. There is no living relationship of marriage in heaven. There is no Qurbana in heaven. Life moves on to a different dimension and plane.

Life passes through a transformatory process from the day it begins, to the day of culmination when life enters into fullness and totality. A child is safe and secure in its mother’s womb. Food and oxygen are provided by the mother who eats and breathes for her child. The child grows and transforms. It cannot opt to stay in the womb for long. It has to enter into a new world. The life of the child in the world is different from the life of the child in the womb. This is a transformatory process. In the same way,mortal life has to move on. As the German philosopher Martin Heidegger said: ‘A genuine human life is a life which is lived towards death.’ Death is a gateway to another form of life. St. Paul says, “This mortal nature must put on immortality.”

(1 Corinthians 15:33). According to Christian belief, death marks the end of earthly life and is also a passing over into life into the eternal world. This is growth and fulfillment. It is ‘Life after life.’

We Christians affirm our faith through the Nicene Creed where we say : “We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the new life of the world to come”. Here, Jesus Christ is our Master. Christ rose from the dead as first fruit (I Corinthians 15:3-5, 12-14,20.) St. Paul affirms that the resurrection of Jesus implies the resurrection of believers. Resurrected Life, as we understand from the Bible and from Jesus Christ will be different from our present life in time and space. Eternal life that transcends our time and space is still human life and a human destiny. The ultimate fulfillment of our completed life transformed through death and resurrection is a life in communion with God. (Rev 21:5-7.)

This culmination is our joy in God. Rev 21:3 says: “Now God’s home is with human kind. He will live with them and they shall be His people.” This is the joyful experience where there will be no tears, no death, no more grief, no weeping and no pain. There will only be praise and rejoicing. Rev 19:6 says, “Praise God! For the Lord, our almighty God is King! Let us rejoice and be glad; let us praise His greatness.” Verse 1 says “Halleluiah! Salvation, glory and power belong to our God”-Amen.

Mar Theodosius

Chennai, September 12, 2007