Jesus has come to conquer over the reality of death. When we think about it there are two types of death. One of these should not be of concern for us while the other should come as great concern. The first is the death which we encounter in this life when one's life on this earth comes to its end. The second type of death is that which takes place in our soul through the reality of sin. This first type of death should be of no concern because through it our existence continues into the hope of everlasting life. This type of death is a necessary step for us to take from this world to the Father. The second type of death should concern us because through our free choice of it we choose to deprive ourself of a perfect relationship with God and can even come to deprive ourself of sanctifying grace and thus deprive ourself of the Kingdom of Heaven.
We must remember that neither of these types of death have anything to with God and His original order for us because they after all are a result of the Fall. The Book of Wisdom reminds us of this reality and thus too what the original plan was which we will once again come to encounter in the Kingdom of Heaven. In the Kingdom of Heaven there will be no more sickness, no more pain, and no more death. Instead we will only encounter the joy of being held in perfect union with God and thus all of creation for all of eternity. We must remember that the physical death of our bodies cannot put a stop to this, but the death of our soul through the reality of serious sin is able to and thus this is something which is most serious.
No matter how we find ourself to be this day we must encounter our Gospel with great hope. The message contained within this Gospel is that Christ takes that which has been left for dead and in return raises it to new life. To the human eye it looked as if this young woman was dead, but Christ knew that she was only sleeping. If this were simply physical death He knew that one day the doors to the Kingdom of Heaven would be opened wide and thus she would come to know the true joys of eternal life. He thus too looked upon this young woman with the knowledge that the death of sin cannot conquer because His healing mercy is so much greater. Christ's healing mercy can restore us to life, but do we actually desire to take the pains upon ourself to make this so?
Throughout this Gospel we are shown that our faith in the healing power of Christ cannot be something that is passive. We must go out in search for it and embrace what it is that we find. This father encountered death, but through faith He knew that Christ was the only one who could restore life. The woman suffering from a hemorrhage was left unclean and thus was condemned by the law, but through her faith and thus her encounter with Christ she was healed. We must be sent forth from here with this same assurance of faith. So often we want to be passive when it comes to our struggle with sin, but those healed in our Gospel were not found to be passive. They instead searched out Christ no matter the hardship that arose and came to embrace Him with perfect faith.
Thankfully Christ has left us with the gift of the seven sacraments. In other words we don't have to go on a search to find something to sustain us and to assure us of the mercy of God. We do, however, need to prevail ourself to Christ and thus allow Him to heal us from our death through that which He has provided to His Church on this earth. If we desire the Kingdom of Heaven with the knowledge that through it we don't pass away, but instead that we will live forever with God we should realize that sin cannot be found here. In our realization that life is eternal and mortal sin causes true death to soul we should see the necessity to be raised to new life now instead of hoping that it comes later. The Sacrament of Confession assures us of the mercy of God and it aids the believer in overcoming serious sin as well as every day imperfections that keep us from perfect union with God. This Sacrament goes hand in hand with the Most Holy Eucharist which also strengthens us on this journey of faith, but of course serious sin kills our relationship with the Eucharist because the Eucharist is Jesus Christ who is present with us. May we trust in the Sacraments because through each of them we come to encounter Jesus Christ who restores life to those who are found to be dead and thus too prepares us to enter into the joys of eternal life where we will never pass away.
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