...to judge the living and the dead.
I used to think that meant, our Lord will judge those who happen to be breathing in their bodies and those who happen to be sleeping in the dust at the moment of His glorious Appearing. Not any more. I think it means He will judge those who through faith are connected to His unending life (whether breathing or not) and those who spurn His gift of life (whether breathing or not). We need to learn to rethink what we mean by "the living" and the "the dead" -- and so to realize what a blessed term is "faithful departed." They're not DEAD, they've just departed "this" age. With joy we meet with them at the Altar, the same Altar where they too received a life that no death can destroy. Glory to Him who is the Resurrection and the Life!
3 comments:
I don't think this is the kind of assertion you can make without some kind of hard evidence. Is there any evidence in Christian antiquity that this phrase was taken in this way? I don't see why it cannot just be taken literally. I'm not convinced.
Augustine allows it as a possible meaning:
It may also be understood thus: The living, the just; the dead, the unjust. For He judges both, rendering unto each his own. To the just He will say in the judgment, "Come, you blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world." For this prepare yourselves, for these things hope, for this live, and so live, for this believe, for this be baptized, that it may be said to you, "Come ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." To them on the left hand, what? "Go into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels." Thus will they be judged by Christ, the quick and the dead. (Homily on the Creed, par. 12)
Pr Beisel, why do you think that it's NOT literal that the "living and the dead" refer to believers and unbelievers? If words in the church are defined by their use in Scripture, then wouldn't "dead" mean "unbeliever" at least as often as it means "having assumed room temperature"? (I dunno. I haven't counted. Maybe I'm way off about that.)
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