SERVE THE LORD WITH GLADNESS | Jesus offers us immunity from eternal death
In order to live the life Jesus offers us, we need to embrace the daily disciplines of Christian life

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We celebrate the feast of St. Blaise this week (Feb. 3). He’s the patron saint of protection from every illness of the throat — a fitting feast for cold and flu season!
If you could pick a patron saint for some cultural illness of the world today, what would it be? Personally, I think we could use a patron saint for making the best — rather than the worst — of other people’s statements and actions. What would our news shows, talk shows and conversations be like if our first step was to put the best interpretation on the actions and intentions of others?
Speaking of illnesses, we’re coming up on the fifth anniversary of the “COVID shutdown.” I mention that not only because it’s a fact of the calendar but also because of something St. Irenaeus says in the Office of Readings this week: “Only by being united to one who is Himself immune could we be preserved from corruption and death.” Interesting: The notion of immunity is not only a modern medical concept, it was also a theological concept in the ancient world.
I wonder if that provides an avenue for presenting the Gospel today. Our culture seeks vaccination against a great variety of illnesses. That’s fine. Vaccination is a great blessing of modern medicine, even if it’s not an unmixed blessing.
What’s interesting is that a culture rightly interested in preventing earthly illness doesn’t seek vaccination against the ultimate illness of eternal death. Jesus wants to share His life with us — a life that allows us to pass through death into heaven. Why does a culture that seeks temporal vaccination turn away from this eternal vaccination?
Remember, too, that “saving from death” isn’t a new feature of God’s relationship with His people. St. Augustine, reflecting on the connection between Passover and baptism, said: “The doorposts of the Jews were sealed with the blood of the slaughtered animal; with the blood of Christ our foreheads are sealed. And that [ancient] sealing — for it had a real significance — was said to keep away the destroyer from the houses that were sealed; Christ’s seal drives away the destroyer from us, if we receive the Savior into our hearts.” God offers the most powerful immunization ever!
Christ’s life was paradoxical. As Hebrews 12 says, God appeared to ancient Israel in thunder and lightning on the mountain. Though scary, that made a certain amount of human sense! But in Jesus, God comes to us quietly — in the flesh, on the cross, in the Eucharist and in the poor. That takes some getting used to!
So, too, Christ’s life in us is paradoxical. We receive His life in what appears to be bread and wine but is really Him. We receive His instruction in what appears to be simple words but are really the Word. We meet Him in what appear to be beggars and the sick, but are really Him in disguise. Maybe that’s why people turn away.
Hebrews 12 also tells us: “For the sake of the joy that lay before Him Jesus endured the Cross.” That’s not so foreign to us: We see athletes who endure the discipline of training for the sake of some victory.
The question becomes: What are the daily disciplines of the Christian life, and how do we embrace them to stay with the life that Jesus offers us? That’s key, because here’s the thing: When we stay with His life, He offers us immunity from eternal death.