Spiritual Exercises of the Curia: The first death
By Fr. Roberto Pasolini, OFM Cap
Why do we struggle to recognize that eternal life has already begun? The Bible suggests that from the very beginning, human beings have been insensitive and hostile to God's action. The prophets of the Old Testament denounced the people's inability to notice the "new things" that God was accomplishing, while Jesus himself, seeing the lack of understanding in his listeners, spoke in parables. This was not to simplify his message but to highlight the hardness of the human heart, which is closed to the possibility of a full life.
The New Testament describes this condition with a paradoxical statement: we are already dead, but we do not realize it. Death is not only the final event of life (biological death) but also a reality we already experience—through our self-enclosure that prevents us from perceiving life as something eternal that God wants to give us. Genesis narrates this loss of sensitivity through what tradition has called the "original sin": instead of receiving life as a gift, humanity seeks to control it, exceeding the limit set by God. The result is not the autonomy promised by the snake, but a sense of shame and disorientation.
This first "inner death" manifests in our constant attempts to cover our vulnerabilities with images, roles, and successes, rather than confronting the deep emptiness within us. Yet, in the Bible, God does not seem alarmed by this condition: His first reaction is to seek out humanity, asking, "Where are you?" (Gen 3:9). This indicates that inner death is not the end, but the starting point for a journey of salvation.
This logic also appears in the story of Cain and Abel: God does not intervene to prevent fratricide, but He protects Cain from his own guilt. This shows that our "first death" is not an inescapable fate but an opportunity to rediscover eternal life as a present reality, not just a future one. Jesus himself invites us to interpret life's tragedies as opportunities for conversion, not as signs of condemnation (Lk 13:4-5).
God views our inner death not as a defeat, but as the starting point for a new existence. The real obstacle to eternal life is not biological death, but our inability to recognize that we are already immersed in a reality that transcends time—if only we choose to live it with trust and openness to God.
Thank you for reading our article. You can keep up-to-date by subscribing to our daily newsletter. Just click here
