Friday, 27th Week of Ordinary Time

Matthew 16:13-20
The Daily Office

Traditionally, in verse 18, it is the “gates of hell” that shall not prevail against the Church (as in the King James Version).  In the New Revised Standard Version, it is the “gates of Hades,” as in the underworld kingdom of Hades, the Greek god of the dead.  What is not meant here is that place we call “Hell” where sinners spend an eternity in punishment.  For the ancient Greeks and Romans, and for some Jews, there was no afterlife worthy of the name.  Death was simply a process where the spirits of the dead (described as shades by the Greek poet Homer) went underground and continued in a semi-conscious state, at best.

The older Rev. Standard comes closest to the meaning with “the powers of death shall not prevail against it.”  If “being saved” is only about not going to Hell, that is a very crimped idea of God, and our purpose.  There is more to the journey of faith than avoiding the wrath of an angry, judgmental God.  What God wants for us is a life full of love and happiness.  Anything that would suck out our happiness and leave us alone in this world is one of the “powers of death."  And the Church is not to sit behind impregnable walls, waiting for their assault.  We are the ones to take the offensive against those powers of death that would isolate someone in their pain.  For it is against us, the Church of Christ, that “the powers of death shall not prevail.”  Get marching, together!