New Life in Christ

229 By the miraculous raising of Jairus’ daughter (see Lk 8:41-42, 49-56), the raising of the widow’s son in Nain (see Lk 7:11-16), and the raising of his friend Lazarus (see Jn 11:1-57), Christ gradually prepared the apostles for his own Resurrection. Christ refers to human death as sleep: “Go away, for the girl is not dead but sleeping” (Mt 9:24). Death is not the end of life but a falling asleep; humankind is not dead, it has fallen asleep. The Church also refers to Christ’s death in the same way: “In the flesh you fell asleep as a mere mortal.”187 Saint John of Damascus unveils the meaning of Christ’s death: “Although he died as man 83 and his holy soul was severed from his immaculate body, yet his divinity remained inseparable from both, I mean, from his soul and his body.”188 The death of Christ is life-giving: Christ himself permitted death to hold him, so that he might finally conquer it, and grant new life.