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DUX VITAE MORTUUS REGNAT VIVUS
ST JOSEPH COLLEGE MEMORIAL MASS
I wish to thank the organizers for this year's Memorial Mass
for the teachers and alumni members of St. Joseph Yokohama whose memory we treasure
in our hearts and serves as an inspiration in our journey ahead. As we recall
with fondness and gratitude the kindness and friendship shared with us by our
friends who have gone ahead of us in God's company, let us be reminded of a very
well known saying which goes: "the best way to remember the dead is to take
care of the living!" May this year's Memorial Mass serve as an occasion for
us to celebrate also the gift of our friendship as classmates, friends....children
of God!
Perhaps we might ask: what happened to those who died in the
place of dead? Let me answer by citing the Jewish worldview regarding death and
the place of dead. After all, the early formulations of the Christian Faith were
very much influenced by this Jewish worldview.
For the Jews, death, like sickness, is an event of isolation.
So when someone dies, that person, in some sense, is cut off from the world of
the living. Where does that person go? - To the place of the dead, which the Greeks
call - Hades (in Hebrew, Sheol). The dead go to Hades and are called shades. They
are like shadows. The shades exist in a form of non-existence. Why? In Hades,
there is no communication between the shades. It may be heavily populated by shades
but one thing is missing - communication. The absence of communication is one
characteristic of the place of the dead. The dead may be next to each other in
Hades but they do not commune with one another. Worst of all, in Hades, there
is no praise of God. People cannot communicate with God. In Hades, that non-communication
with God is real death. Communication with God especially in the form of adoration
or praise simply stops. Hades is a place where communication with God is not possible.
The God of life and the place of the dead simply cannot meet. God who is Life
cannot have any place in Hades. The place of the dead is a place where communion
stops - communion among the dead but, worst of all, communion with God.
At times, in our effort to keep our customs and traditions such
as remembering or praying for the deceased members of our family, friends or relatives,
who have gone ahead of us in heaven, we forget that we also have the earthly duty
to take care of each other! For all we know, death is not just biological; it
is the termination of communication. A person truly dies not only because the
biological systems have collapsed. True death is experienced when communion: that
is the possibility of person-hood is no longer present. Person-hood is being in
communion with others. If we are not in communion, not able to communicate with
God, we are truly dead.
We do not need to die a physical death to be in Hades. Many people
are already in the place of the dead because they do not communicate; they are
not in communion. One may be in a beautiful mansion and yet live in Hades. When
there is no full communion with one another in the same house, in the parish community
and full communion with God, then we are the "living dead." In our time,
we can suspect that there are many who are already dead - simply lonely and not
having anybody to communicate with; not having someone with whom they can share
- not so much their sorrows but, much more difficult - their joys. It is worth
noting that, in contrast to death which is absence of communion, life - from the
Jewish worldview, means being in communion - with others and with God. Our Lord
Jesus went to the dead, to the place where God cannot communicate to initiate
a communication that is impossible and forbidden by the reality of death. By going
to the dead, Jesus opens a form of communication in a place where it is not possible.
Jesus broke the isolation imposed by death and became the link between us and
the Father, and among ourselves.
Today's Memorial Mass is for our deceased teachers and classmates,
let us thank the Lord for all our loved ones whom He called to be in communion
with Him in eternity, and ask for the grace to become builders of communion in
our respective families, in our parish community, in the world over! Amen.
CELEBRANT: FATHER OSCAR SAMSON, P.I.M.E.
SACRED HEART CATHEDRAL
YOKOHAMA
23 SEPTEMBER 2009: 10:00 HOURS
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