Lazarus

• 3 years ago

By JOE SIXPACK

Of all Jesus’ parables, only one tells the name of any character. The parable I’m talking about is the one we call “Lazarus and Dives” or “Lazarus and the Rich Man” (Luke 16:19-31). This is the story Jesus told of a beggar who was afflicted with horrible open sores. He lay outside the rich man’s gate, wanting only to be fed from the waste that fell from the rich man’s table, but the rich man ignored him. According to Jesus’ story, Lazarus died and was carried by the angels to “Abraham’s bosom.” The rich man also died and was buried.

Due to the way the rich man had lived in his lack of charity, he was punished with a great burning. He asked Father Abraham to allow Lazarus to dip his finger into water and let just a drop fall to his tongue. When his request was denied, the rich man asked that Lazarus be sent back to life to warn his brothers of what awaited them if they continued to live as he did.

It’s very unlikely this is a parable at all, but more likely it’s a true story. (We’ll never know for certain in this life, but I fully intend to ask about it if I’m saved at the end of my own life.) This story of Jesus names Lazarus, who is mentioned again in Scripture (John 11:1-44).

When Jesus heard that Lazarus, a brother of Mary and Martha, was sick and dying, He remained where He was for two days. As Jesus and His disciples left to go to Lazarus, He told them, “Lazarus is dead; and I rejoice on your account that I was not there, that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

Jesus arrived to find Lazarus had already been in the tomb for four days. When Martha heard Jesus was approaching the town, she went out to meet Him and said to Him, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But even now I know that whatever you shall ask of God, He will give it to you.”

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise.”

“I know that He will rise at the resurrection, on the last day.”

“I am the Resurrection and the Life,” Jesus said. “He who believes in me, even if he die, shall live; and whoever lives and believes in me, shall never die. Do you believe this?”

“Yes, Lord, I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who has come into the world.”

Jesus ordered the tomb opened, but it was protested that Lazarus had already been in there for four days so the stench had to be horrible. Despite the protests, Jesus insisted the tomb be opened. Then Jesus cried out, “Lazarus, come forth!” Immediately, the dead Lazarus came from the tomb.

Jesus raised up the dead Lazarus by reuniting his soul to his body. This is what we will experience at the end of time, at the General Judgment. The eleventh article of the Creed (the resurrection of the body) states our belief that the bodies of all people — both the good and the evil — will rise from the dead at the end of the world and will be reunited to their souls for all eternity.

It’s natural to the human person to be a material body and a spiritual soul. The body participated with the soul in all the good and evil done in life, so it’s only just that both the body and the soul should share in the eternal reward or punishment earned in life.

At the resurrection of the dead, you will have the same body you had in this life. Assuming we are judged worthy of Heaven, the only difference between our earthly body and our resurrected body is that the latter will be in its glorified state — its intended original state before sin entered the world; that is, it will be exceedingly beautiful and forever free from pain and death (1 Cor. 15:43-44). We know that the Blessed Virgin Mary was at least fifty years old at the end of her earthly life, yet visionaries invariably describe her as youthful and exceedingly beautiful.

If we are judged worthy of Heaven, we will be restored to our originally intended state, with the qualities given to Adam and Eve prior to original sin. There are four specific gifts we will have in our glorified human bodies: impassibility, brightness, agility, and subtility.

Impassibility is the quality that means the risen body will never again suffer. Your resurrected body will never again know pain, suffering, or death. You won’t even have any sort of inconvenience, such as being cold or hot.

Brightness is the quality that will make our bodies shine like the sun. Jesus gave Peter, James, and John an introduction of this at His Transfiguration. Jesus said, “Then the virtuous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of the Father” (Matt. 13:43).

Agility is that quality of the glorified body that frees us from all material burden. We’ll move about with a perfect ease and swiftness that depends only on an act of our will.

Subtility is what Paul calls the “spiritual body” but without ceasing to be material. The glorified body will be completely under the control of the human spirit.

On the other hand, if we are judged unworthy of Heaven, then there will be no glorified body. We’ll have the same body we had in this life, but without the ability to die. Our resurrected body and condemned soul will suffer every kind of torment for all eternity, because in this life we chose to reject Christ and His Church.

Picking and choosing what to believe — what people call being a cafeteria Catholic — can only result in a resurrected body that will suffer forever. And the punishment earned for rejecting Christ and His Church is in direct proportion to our guilt. Even atheists will suffer less than we, because we have the fullness of Christ’s truth in the Catholic Church and refuse to accept it, but they have only prideful doubt. So it behooves us to choose in favor of Jesus on every aspect of the faith of our fathers.

In all of history, only two people have entered Heaven with a glorified human body. The first is Jesus Christ, when He ascended into Heaven. The other, the Blessed Virgin Mary, is also living in Heaven, body and soul. According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “‘The Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death.’ The assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 966).

Christ’s Resurrection and the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Assumption into Heaven body and soul are our promise of heavenly bliss, if we’re judged worthy of Heaven.

If you have a question or comment you can reach out to me through the “Ask Joe” page of JoeSixpackAnswers.com, or you can email me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.

Hey, how would you like to see things like this article every week in your parish bulletin as an insert? You or your pastor can learn more about how to do that by emailing me at Joe@CantankerousCatholic.com.