Fr. Mark Patrick Hederman: In this heady time after Easter we are full of talk about Resurrection and everlasting life; most of our official prayers are about joining Jesus in his risen state and remaining with Him for ever. Another big topic of conversation is the journey to the far side of the moon which happened very recently. Artemis II carried the first astronauts to travel to the Moon in more than half a century. These came back to Earth last Friday week after a record10-day journey that took them the farthest distance from the Earth ever reached. I have to say that I keep asking myself what is the point of it all, especially when it costs four billion dollars a pop?
Getting beyond the time/space orbit of our natural biological lives requires a rigorous training programme. To become an astronaut, you often spend months lying in a tilted bed with your feet 6 degrees higher than your head without ever standing or sitting up.— this gives a physical reaction akin to weightlessness. “Human beings on the way to Mars, for instance, have to become halfway between a fish and a bird,” the experts say.
The largest human-made object launched beyond earth’s gravitational pull is The International Space Station (ISS). It is about the size of a football field, and contains living quarters about the size of a six-bedroom house. Two years ago a pair of American astronauts, Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, were launched up there for what was meant to be an 8 day mission. However, because of technical problems, they were left there for eight months. They came back to earth in March of last year. What would your weightlessness do up there floating around six bedrooms for eight months?
We say in both the Apostles and the Nicaean creeds, as you will say in a few minutes time: ‘I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.’ But the truth is that we weren’t really made for long-term capability. Half the beauty of a sunset on this planet is that it doesn’t last. We can only put up with short-term entertainment. ‘Beatific Vision for all eternity is a no-no for those who find a three hour movie too long and too tedious. What can it mean to be blissfully happy for all of eternity? Think of any pleasure you really enjoy and then imagine it going on forever. The ice-cream that you crave on a summer’s day – if it’s stuck in your gob for a fortnight it kinda loses its flavour.
There are over 8 billion persons in the universe as we speak. The 15th November, 2022, was the “Day of Eight Billion.” From that day onwards our human family comprises that number all expecting to be resurrected when their time comes. Calculations which have become possible in our day also suggest that since human persons have emerged on earth there have been about 117 billion bodies formed. Do we think these are kept in some deep-freeze in the sky? Nothing of the material body in which I now stand is going to endure for eternity. Every single particle of me has been renewed during each ten years of my life. I have none of the limbs, joints or bones I started out with.
Anyone who wants to become anything in this life has to undergo rigorous training whether to be an athlete or an astronaut. When we say that Easter means resurrection, we mean that resurrection has already happened; our task is to be plug into that fact. Resurrection is divine energy, divine power and divine love meeting with and transforming each one of us as human persons. Resurrected living is a form of love. In ourselves, in our bodies, in our lives, it shows itself as being in full flow. We are and we act from the true centre of ourselves which is the Holy Spirit of Divine Love. We have to train ourselves for such a life style, and one that goes on forever. Here is the best description I have found: Your personal identity, established in and through an embodied history, is raised up into a trans-physical reality. This means fuelling ourselves with the love of God, becoming lovers of that calibre. We have to begin living that way as of now, no matter what age we are, or what situation we are in.