An Easter Homily: What Happens After We Die?**

BISHOP
KEVIN J.
SWEENEY

**“What Happens After We Die?” That question is the “title” of a homily given by Bishop Robert Barron on this past Sunday, the Third Sunday of Easter. If you are a regular reader of this column, you know that I am a big “fan” of Bishop Barron and his Word on Fire n-line ministry. On this past Feb. 2, Bishop Barron released his 1,000th (first on-radio, then on-line) Sunday Sermon. On the Word on Fire website, you can find homilies from (Father, then Bishop) Barron that go back to Dec. 31, 2000. I became aware of the availability of Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon, I believe, in 2018 or 2019 and I have been listening to them as part of my own “homily preparation” ever since.

Bishop Barron has often been compared to the great American Catholic evangelist and preacher Archbishop Fulton Sheen. The website of the Catholic University of America describes Archbishop Sheen’s popularity:

“…On Easter Sunday, March 24, 1940, Monsignor Sheen appeared on the world’s first broadcast of a Catholic religious service. He spoke on “The Spiritual Symbolism of Television.” The program was broadcast by W2XBS, the experimentally licensed predecessor of present-day WNBC in New York. It was sponsored by the National Council of Catholic Men in celebration of their twentieth anniversary as an organization and the tenth anniversary of their sponsorship of “The Catholic Hour” radio broadcast.

By the time Monsignor Sheen left Catholic University in 1950 to become the national director of the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, he was already one of the most well known Catholics of his time. The next chapter of his mission would catapult him to unprecedented fame and influence.

He was consecrated a bishop on June 11, 1951. In the Fall of that year, he began his famous television series, Life is Worth Living. It was a tremendous success, eventually reaching an estimated 30 million viewers each week, which would make it the most widely-viewed religious series in the history of television. He won an Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Television Personality, was featured on the cover of Time Magazine, and became one of the most influential Catholics of the 20th century.

You can read the full article here.

Archbishop Sheen was a little “before my time,” but I have read and studied him and listened to many of his recorded talks, sermons, and retreats. Archbishop Sheen had a great impact on the Catholic Church of his time, particularly in the United States. He also gave Catholics in the United States someone who could be “looked up to” and who became a beloved “spokesperson” for the Church in the wider society, as well as a voice in the culture and on television, the “new media” of the time.

I believe that Bishop Barron follows in the line of Archbishop Sheen as an effective apostle to the media. Bishop Barron is a true gift and blessing to the Church and a “spokesperson” for the Church in our current (challenging) time and place in history. Teaching with clarity and insight and immersing social media platforms in the transformative power of the gospel, Bishop Barron brings the truth that Jesus Christ is “the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:16) to so many who interact with the Word on Fire ministry. As we look to the examples of Arch­bishop Sheen and Bishop Barron, we find encouragement in announcing the joy that we find in our faith. The Church “is sent forth into the whole world as the light of the world and the salt of the earth” (Lumen Gentium, 9) and so it is important to use all of the tools possible to announce that message.

For the many times I have referenced in this column one of Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermons or his talks or interviews, shared on his Word on Fire podcast, there are many more times when I considered mentioning them because I find them so helpful, so hope-filled and inspiring. His Easter homily (Sunday Sermon) two weeks ago referenced the Shroud of Turin, as it encouraged listeners to try to feel and imagine what Peter and John saw, “… When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place …” (Jn 20:1-9)

When I listened to Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon for this past Sunday, the Third Sunday of Easter, and then went back and listened to it again (and a third time), it struck me as one of the more powerful “Easter Homilies” I have heard. I believe it is a beautiful example of the “living kerygma,” the Church’s continual, ongoing “proclamation of the Good News of Salvation.”

On previous occasions, I have mentioned that I think that there may be readers of this column who never “go online” or perhaps never use the internet, a computer, or a “smartphone.” There was at least one previous occasion when I encouraged you if you don’t use the internet, to find someone who can assist you in doing so. This would be another time when I would encourage you to find someone to help you so that you can find and listen to this homily. Some readers may have listened to it already. I hope that you agree with me. I would encourage anyone to listen to the homily a second or third time, bringing it to prayer and reflection. It can be found here. A transcript of the video can be found at the end of this column.

We have also published it in its entirety in The Beacon this week starting on page 3.

The homily is beautiful and powerful in its entirety. It is a little over 13 minutes long. I would not do it justice by trying to summarize it. I will just offer you a few, very brief highlights, which I hope might convince you to find the time to listen prayerfully and meditate upon the full homily.

As you may recall from Mass on Sunday, the Gospel was the second half of the last chapter of Luke’s Gospel (Lk 24:35-48). The first half of Chapter 24 is the “Road to Emmaus,” concluding with v. 35: “The two disciples recounted what had taken place on the way, and how Jesus was made known to them in the breaking of bread.” As Bishop Barron reflects on this “Second Appearance,” beginning with vv. 35-36 and Jesus’ “Shalom” (Peace be with you), he goes on to describe how the disciples encounter Jesus “fully alive.” Towards the end of the homily, he offers this beautiful reflection:

“… And then. I love this detail, it’s funny, ‘while they were still incredulous for joy’ (v. 41), … He says, ‘Anything here to eat?’ and then they give him a piece of baked fish and he ate it in front of them. Do you remember that line from the Acts of Apostles when St. Peter says, ‘We, who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead’? That line always strikes me because it’s so visceral, it’s so real …”

Bishop Barron goes on to mention what it meant for St. Paul to meet the Risen Lord, “… Paul, mind you, who saw Him. Paul, who was the enemy of the Faith, persecuting it — And then his whole life is changed because he met Him. He met him on the Road to Damascus. He also reflects on what it means for us to profess in the Creed, “We await the Resurrection of the Body” and what we have to look forward to in the eternal life of Heaven.

He concludes by offering us a suggestion, “… one way to move spiritually through the Easter Season is to cultivate your capacity for surprise. What God has in store for us … Eye has not seen, Ear has not heard what God has planned for those who love Him. Cultivate your capacity for surprise. Cultivate your capacity to imagine a ‘spiritual body’ — That’s at the heart of Christian Hope — That’s at the heart of our Easter Season! And God Bless you.

Archbishop Sheen always closed his Life is Worth Living television program with “God love you,” and Bishop Barron signs off most times with “And God bless you.” I join my voice to these great ambassadors of our faith, and I encourage you with the peace of the Risen Lord in our midst, “God love you and bless you forever!”
 

Friends, last week we looked at the 20th chapter of St. John’s Gospel, one of the great resurrection appearances. This week, on the Third Sunday of Easter, we have a passage from that magnificent 24th chapter of Luke. That includes the road to Emmaus story. It’s been called the sort of masterpiece within the masterpiece.

Chapter 24 is just incomparably rich. The story for today opens up with the two disciples, having encountered the Lord and coming to know him in the breaking of the bread. They’ve now made their way back to Jerusalem, and they’ve found the Eleven. They tell them the great news. Then, listen: “While they were still speaking about this, he — Jesus — stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”

We saw this last week, didn’t we? The risen Christ appears always on his own terms in his own way. We have to avoid the Thomas temptation: “Unless I see, unless I verify, unless things happen on my terms.” Well, that’s not the right attitude of faith. That’s trying to manipulate the experience.

No, no. The risen Christ always comes as a grace on his terms. “They were startled and terrified, and they thought they were seeing a ghost. But he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled? Why do questions arise in your heart? Look at my hands and my feet, that it is I myself.’”

There’s again that motif we saw last week. Jesus says, “Shalom.” But he also shows his wounds. Don’t forget what the sin of the world has done. Don’t forget resistance to Christ. But that resistance is overcome by the ever-greater shalom of the Lord. Then listen now as he presses on: “Touch me and see because a ghost does not have flesh and bones as you can see that I have.”

Now, what I want to do, everybody, is pause here because, as I mentioned last week, when we’re talking about the resurrection, we’re talking about the central point of Christian faith, the hinge upon which the whole of Christianity turns. So to understand what we’re dealing with here is exceptionally important. Go back to this time and place. Go back to the eastern Mediterranean, first century. There were a lot of views floating around about what happens to us when we die.

So stay first in a Jewish context. There are lots and lots of texts in the Old Testament, and this became a standard view for many Jews, that when we die, we die. We simply go back into the dust of the earth. Dust and to dust you shall return. Think of the Psalmist, who says, “Lord, can the dust give you praise?” He’s saying, “Look, keep me alive. Now that I’m alive, I can praise you, but once I’m dead, I just return to dust.” So one view is that this life is it. That’s all there is. We die and we die like any other animal.

Another view within a Jewish context — you can see it in a lot of texts in the Old Testament — is that the dead go to a shadowy place called Sheol. No one wants to go to Sheol. No one is looking forward to it. It’s not some place of fulfillment and peace. It’s a kind of shadowy half-life.

In the ancient Greek stories and myths [contained in] the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey,” when the great heroes are doing their work here on earth, well, that’s when they’re in the bright light of the sun and people can see what they do and can praise them. When they die, they go into a similar kind of shadowy underworld. They’re around, but they’re not in the bright light of fame. They’re not living life in the full sense.

So that idea was also floating around in Jesus’ time. There was a third view, and you could see it, for example, in the Pharisees. The Sadducees were the ones who said, “No, no, when you die, that’s it. You just go into the ground and that’s it.” But the Pharisees said, “No, no, we believe in the resurrection of the righteous at the end of time.” The idea here is that people die and then eventually at the close of the age, at the end of time, the righteous dead will come back to life. That view was also around at the time of Jesus.

And then broaden the perspective out. Look in the Greek and Roman world. You read the texts of Plato and you find a view that, it’s very interesting to me, is very common today. In fact, I think even a lot of Christians, if you scratch the surface of their belief, they’re going to come up with kind of a Greek idea, which is this: that the soul, the spirit, is kind of buried inside the body. Plato says it’s imprisoned there. And the whole point of the philosophical life and the spiritual life is to effect a kind of prison break. The soul can finally escape from the restrictions of the body and then it can live on in this purely spiritual realm.

As I say, I think a lot of Bible-believing people think of heaven that way, that I’ve somehow just left the body behind and now my soul goes on.

You see that in Roman mythology, and even in Roman public life. There was a view that some great heroes, like the generals and the emperors, after they die, would go up to the heavenly realm, live with the gods on Mount Olympus. There’s a famous story about the Emperor Vespasian on his deathbed, and he senses death coming. And he says to one of the people, “Well, I think I’m becoming a god.”

So that was a Roman view, not unlike the Greek view, that after we die, the soul escapes from the body. Now here’s the interesting thing — everybody, and I want you to listen carefully because this is the hinge idea: if Christ has not been raised, we’re still in our sins. If Christ has not been raised, we’re the most pitiable of people.

So this is the hinge idea of Christianity. Notice, please, how none of these things that I’ve described is on offer here. So [I’m] clearly not saying that Jesus died and then just went back into the dust of the earth. No, I mean, clearly not. They’re talking about Jesus risen from the dead. They’re not talking about Sheol at all. They’re not saying, “Oh yeah, Jesus died and he went to Sheol. And maybe his ghost kind of came up from Sheol.”

Remember that story; it’s in 2 Samuel, about the witch of Endor who calls forth the shade of the prophet Samuel, calls him up from Sheol. This is exactly why in the story they think they’re seeing a ghost. So they’re operating out of that perspective like, “Oh, maybe this is a ghost come up from Sheol.” But that’s not what’s being described.

Nor are we talking about, “Oh yeah, when all the righteous dead come to life at the end of time.” Now this isn’t the end of time, this is in the middle of time. This happened to them around the year 30 AD. It happened in this identifiable place. They’re clearly not talking about Jesus’ soul escaping from his body and going up to heaven. They’re not talking about Jesus becoming a god like Vespasian the Roman emperor. You see the point?

None of the typical ways of understanding life after death is on offer here. What are they saying? This Jesus, whom they knew, this particular Christ, whom they saw crucified —and you know, there’s this old theory goes back to the 19th Century that maybe he didn’t really die on the cross, he just swooned.

Come on. The Romans were expert at putting people to death. And this is not someone who’s staggering into there barely alive. No, no. This Jesus whom they saw crucified appears to them alive. A ghost from Sheol? No. He says it. I mean, does a ghost have flesh and bones as you see I have? “Touch me and see; a ghost doesn’t have flesh and bones.” As he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.” We’re not talking about some ghostly presence or up there somewhere in heaven. No, no.

This is the Jesus whom they knew. And then I love this detail because it’s funny. “While they were still incredulous for joy,” beautiful phrase, isn’t it? They were just so overjoyed that they could barely believe it. He says, “Anything here to eat?” Just to emphasize the fact. And then they give him, we hear, a piece of baked fish and he ate it in front of them. Remember that line from the Acts of the Apostles, when St. Peter says, “We who ate and drank with him after his resurrection from the dead.”

That line always strikes me because it’s so visceral, it’s so real. We who sat down and ate and drank with him. This is someone now appearing alive again in his body. Now mind you, just like anybody else? Well, no, clearly. Because as they were talking among themselves, suddenly Jesus appears in their midst.

On the road to Emmaus, there he is with them, and then he disappears. Is there something strange and elusive about his appearance? Yeah. How fascinating, too, that very often in these accounts they don’t know for sure that it’s Jesus. Remember that? And you think unless that had really happened to them, they would’ve eliminated that from their account. They wouldn’t have talked about that.

I think that’s a very vivid memory that he was so transfigured. Even as he appears really to them in his body, he’s still so transfigured that it took them a while to understand. Think of the story of the Transfiguration. It’s Jesus, yes, the Jesus whom they knew, but now metamorphosed, now elevated, now becoming dazzlingly white. He’s on the event horizon, if I can put it that way. He’s on the event horizon between this world and the world to come.

And, everybody, this gives us, I think, a keen sense of what our hope is. Christian hope is not, “Hey, I live this world and that’s all I got.” No, no, no, no, no. We long for this fulfillment in heaven. Christian hope is not, “I go down to shadowy Sheol.” No, no. That I come to a fullness of transfigured life, yes, in my body, but now elevated and rendered luminous and perfect. Not escaping from the body and going up to some spiritual realm. No.

We look, don’t we say, for the resurrection of the dead; we await the resurrection of the body. That’s our creedal language. Not the escape of the soul from the body. No, the elevation and transfiguration of the body. Think about this, everyone. Go back to the beginning of the bible, and we have God creating the whole material order in all of its beauty and variegated complexity.

Do you think God just wants all that to just fade away? He’s done all that and it amounts to nothing? The whole idea is to escape from all that? No, no. “I’m creating a new heavens and a new earth.” God wants to renew all of creation. He wants to renew the material order. All of that is implied and contained in this idea of the resurrection.

St. Paul talks about the spiritual body. That’s his way of gesturing toward this paradoxical reality. Paul, mind you, who saw him, Paul, who was the enemy of the faith, persecuting it, and then his whole life is changed because he met him. He met him on the road to Damascus. This is what we’re talking about, everybody, this Jesus, in his body, bearing his wounds, eating and drinking before them, and yet transfigured and elevated to a higher pitch. This is what we celebrate during this Easter season.

I’ll close with this. I think one way to move spiritually through the Easter season is to cultivate your capacity for surprise. What God has in store for us, it’s not nothing, not going back to the dust of the earth. It’s not the soul leaving the body behind. No, no. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard what God has planned for those who love him.”

Cultivate your capacity for surprise. Cultivate your capacity to imagine a spiritual body. That’s at the heart of Christian hope. That’s at the heart of our Easter season. And God bless you.

This transcription was autogenerated by YouTube and edited by The Beacon staff from the video entitled “What Happens After We Die?” – Bishop Barron’s Sunday Sermon that premiered on Bishop Robert Barron’s YouTube channel on April 13, 2024.