Life, Death, and Immortality (13th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

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Of all the books in the Old Testament, the book of Wisdom has the most extended discussion of the nature of life, death, and the afterlife. It teaches that death was not an original part of God’s created order, but is a consequence of human sin, which in turn was spurred by “the devil’s envy.”

Nevertheless, despite our mortality, we see here a promise of eternal life when it states that “righteousness is immortal” and “God made him in the image of his own eternity.” We also see this in the following passage, where it states that the souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and only appear to have perished (Wisdom 3:1-9). Few other places in the Old Testament provide us with such a glimpse of the afterlife. For example, we read in Job:

For I know that my Redeemer lives,

and that at the last he will stand upon the earth;

and after my skin has been thus destroyed,

then in my flesh I shall see God,

whom I shall see on my side,

and my eyes shall behold, and not another.

My heart faints within me! (Job 19:25-27)

Likewise, the book of Daniel contains this affirmation:

Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky, and those who lead the many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:2-3)

All of this is connected to the mysterious figure mentioned in Wisdom 2:12-20, who calls himself God’s child, and is persecuted by the wicked. It is not altogether clear whom the original author had in mind when he wrote this, but later generations of readers could not help but notice the similarity in language to Isaiah 53, which is the clearest Messianic passage in the Old Testament, and the most oft-quoted in the New. Thus, interpreters see here a foretelling of Christ. In this light, we see that Christ is the one who makes eternal life available to all who believe in Him.

J. Luis Dizon