“I see dead people.” Remember that line in the movie? It’s not considered a horror film, even though dead people show up from time to time. It’s more a suspense film, making you wonder constantly what’s really going on, even occasionally making you jump. But the best part of the film I think, aside from watching your friends jump, cower, and scream, is the surprise ending. No spoilers even if it’s been 25 years. If you haven’t seen it, I recommend you do. But not alone, not because you won’t be able to turn the lights out when you go to bed. Rather, it will give you a lot to think about. You might even want to watch it again just so you can figure it out. But you will want to talk to someone about it. I would prefer you didn’t call me. I was done talking about it 25 years ago. And there are online movie chat rooms for just that purpose.
But like in the film, I am convinced I, too, can see dead people—no, not people who have passed into the great beyond and are physically no longer alive, but rather, people who are in fact breathing and talking and walking around. The difference is that they just seem to be missing out on a life of meaning and purpose. You’ve seen them around. You’ve met them. They do way too much. They’re always running everywhere. They’re always tired. They never get enough sleep. They very seldom get time to just sit and be quiet. And they often can’t remember the last time they were happy. In which case, you probably can see dead people yourselves. Or even worse, I just described you. So it’s really no gift to be able to see dead people. The real gift is to not be yourself one of them dead people. And if you discover you are in fact one of the dead, the gift would be the ability to come back to join the living.
We arrive at this physical existence we call life completely the consequence of someone else’s choice, so pretty much without our consent. Physical life is pure gift. Yet at some point in early childhood, we discover a conscious awareness of who we are. We identify with a name, and we begin to refer to ourselves in the first person. We come to acknowledge our own physical reality, our attributes, our preferences. We can point to ourselves in a mirror, and recognize ourselves in photographs. We discover our own abilities, our limitations, our inclinations, our potential. We are able to tell when we are unhappy, when we are content, when we are in pain, and when we are delirious with joy. But conscious awareness is just the first step toward living a life of meaning and purpose. The next step is being able to participate in it freely and willingly.
“I see dead people.” What would be the most striking difference between those who are physically alive and those who are dead? The living are able to move, breathe, talk, eat, and interact with others. They can express emotions—happiness, sadness, fear, determination, frustration. In contrast, the dead just lie there. They used to do things, now they can’t. They no longer have opinions or preferences. They are neither happy nor sad. They have lost interest and ability to improve their situation. They no longer participate in life. And they can’t tell you what they want. Not anymore anyway.
The dead we encounter in scripture today are dead in a very different sense. The prophet Ezekiel announced that God desires to raise the people of Israel from their graves, give them a share of his spirit, and settle them upon the land. Clearly, Ezekiel is referring to something other than physical death. If God is the source of all life, it seems Israel has been cut off from God and God’s life, and God wants to open their graves. This separation from God can come about through a number of ways, from the worship of false gods to a long list of crimes and objectionable behaviors identified in the Law of the Lord as offensive to God—injustice, oppression, the taking of life, dishonesty, untruth, dishonoring one’s parents, adultery, bearing false witness, stealing, coveting what belongs to your neighbor—to name a few. And if these things can bring about death in some form, particularly in Israel’s relationship with God, the prophet suggests there is a way back from the dead, a way back to life, a way back to God.
In his letter to the Romans, St. Paul refers to the kind of death that comes about when we hand ourselves over willingly and voluntarily to sin and the desires of the flesh. If we say we belong to Christ, we have left sin and the desires of the flesh behind. Those who belong to Christ possess his Spirit and are no longer subject to sin. And if the Spirit of Christ dwells in us, we are given access to the very life of God. Ideally, that would be our reality because we who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been given the Spirit of God to dwell in us. Yet while we live this present existence, we are still in the flesh, and consequently we will still struggle. But to live God’s life means we choose to willingly participate in it. It is a most distinct quality of the living to not just lie there. And for as long as we still struggle, we cannot truly be dead.
Throughout his ministry, Jesus repeatedly displayed his power over sin and the kingdom of Satan, when he healed the sick, when he restored the broken to wholeness, and when he drove out demons. On only two other occasions in the gospels did Jesus restore to life people who were dead—the temple official Jairus’ daughter, and the son of the widow of Nain. What was different about the raising of Lazarus from the dead was Jesus’ obvious and deliberate delay in traveling to Bethany to be with Martha and her sister Mary. Strict Jewish observance demands burial must take place within 24 hours of death. And Lazarus had been in the tomb 4 days. Martha warned Jesus there would be a stench. Clearly, Lazarus was dead. So when Jesus raised him to life, his opponents saw in it a direct claim to equality with God, and it blew their minds because only God can give life.
Jesus truly desires to give us life, not just a physical life, but more importantly, life in the spirit, the very life of God. Unlike with our physical lives which we can only consent to after the fact, we cannot welcome the life of God without first choosing it freely. And choosing God’s life means we are also rejecting sin and all that is opposed to God’s life. We might continue to struggle for as long as we live a physical existence. But God’s Spirit dwells in us, giving us power to reject sin.
“I see dead people” was such a clever premise. And as I said, you will want to talk about it with someone. But the twist in the end might make you wonder (it made me wonder) how the dead and the living could possibly know whether they were dead or living. But I guess you’ll never know until you know. And each of us can only figure it out ourselves.
Rolo B Castillo © 2025