The Community's Power to Raise the Dead.
Christians have always recognized that
God gives signs by the miraculous – events out of the ordinary course of
nature. God does so for many purposes, not the least of which is to wake people
up to God’s reality and the fundamental realities of our existence.
Last week we quoted Church Father St.
Irenaeus, writing about AD 180, as saying the raising from the dead “is
oftentimes” done, especially with the prayer and fasting of the Christian
community.
This prayer by the faithful as a
community in raising the dead was seen in Constantinople in the AD 380's where
Bishop St. Gregory of Nazianzus (329-390), along with his congregation, prayed
for a woman, who was pregnant, who fell from the gallery in their meeting place
(it didn’t happen to be the formal church at that time). Both mother and child
were restored to life, and the miracle was attributed to all the faithful who
had prayed together, not specifically to their Bishop.
St. John Henry Newman (Cardinal Newman)
(1801-1890) points out that the Fathers and early writers of the Church took
for granted that their fellow Christians knew of the wonders worked by the
Lord, and because such knowledge was so common, they felt no need for proof.
Just “everybody” knew of demons cast out, of miraculous cures, and of the dead
being raised, that they considered it up to the skeptic who objected to prove
that such had not happened – because they all knew it did!
One more story. There may never have
been one so reluctant to become a deacon, priest, and later bishop as St.
Martin of Tours (316 or 336-397) – nor one with as many failures in
evangelization as he had. His raising of the dead happened after one such
failure (among a string of failures) when he was run out of town with sticks
and stones. He, while still a lay person, had come back to the home of Bishop
St. Hillary to find a friend of Hillary’s had died in the home from a bad fever
the previous night. Bishop Hillary had actually left this lad in the care of
St. Martin, so Martin felt responsible. The friend apparently was a nobleman,
and not yet baptized – that was Martin’s spiritual concern for the young man.
Martin fell on his knees by the dead
body and “sobbed violently” – likely not only for this young man but for all
the failures he had been experiencing. They say the neighbors and servants
watched him weep for a long time. Then, with sudden inspiration, Martin made
everyone leave the room, shut the door, and laid down upon the dead body. He
prayed – for two hours! Then he raised himself, fixed his eyes on the dead
boy’s face, and spiritually just knew that by the Lord’s mercy, the boy would
be raised. Gradually, little by little, Martin could feel life returning to the
young man. First a limb moved, then another, and eventually he opened his eyes
to look upon Martin. Martin, with a loud voice, even shouting, loudly gave
thanks to the Lord. All who had been put out of the room rushed in to see the
boy they had left dead, now alive once again.
Immediately, the say, the boy was baptized. (You don’t put off your salvation!)
Dibby Allan Green