Daily Retreat 09/19/08
2008 Sep 19 Fri: Ordinary Weekday/ Januarius, bp, mt
1 Cor 15: 12-20/ Ps 16(17): 1bcd. 6-7. 8b and 15/ Lk 8: 1-3
From today’s readings: “If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?... Lord, when Your glory appears, my joy will be full.... Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God....”
What is Resurrection?
Too many Christians spiritualize the reality of the resurrection, even forgetting it’s crucial dogmatic weight as an article of the Creed. In their impoverished notion of life after death, such people are generally comfortable with imagining some misty mode of the soul’s continual existence after the physical demise of the body.
But Christianity promises more than mere immortality of the soul - our faith is rooted in the non-negotiable, uncompromising belief in the glorified physical resurrection of the body! In fact, the very word “resurrection” explicitly means “rising again,” so it would be an inappropriate term to use if one did not believe that the same essence (viz., the body) that experienced death was itself to be brought to new life. The mistake is often made of assuming that “resurrection” is another word for “new life in Heaven with God,” but resurrection goes beyond that!
God created us body and soul; He redeemed us body and soul; and, in the end, it is His will that our eternal existence (for good or bad!) will be experienced in the essential unity of body and soul. This is the inevitable conclusion raised by the Resurrection of Christ! Are you confused, hedging, doubtful, or even scandalized by this? So were the Corinthians, which is why Paul needed to explicitly address the issue here in chapter 15, insisting on the logical inferences drawn from belief in Christ’s Resurrection. Still have questions? See how Paul answers them in the continuation of this chapter tomorrow....
1 Cor 15: 12-20/ Ps 16(17): 1bcd. 6-7. 8b and 15/ Lk 8: 1-3
From today’s readings: “If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead?... Lord, when Your glory appears, my joy will be full.... Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God....”
What is Resurrection?
Too many Christians spiritualize the reality of the resurrection, even forgetting it’s crucial dogmatic weight as an article of the Creed. In their impoverished notion of life after death, such people are generally comfortable with imagining some misty mode of the soul’s continual existence after the physical demise of the body.
But Christianity promises more than mere immortality of the soul - our faith is rooted in the non-negotiable, uncompromising belief in the glorified physical resurrection of the body! In fact, the very word “resurrection” explicitly means “rising again,” so it would be an inappropriate term to use if one did not believe that the same essence (viz., the body) that experienced death was itself to be brought to new life. The mistake is often made of assuming that “resurrection” is another word for “new life in Heaven with God,” but resurrection goes beyond that!
God created us body and soul; He redeemed us body and soul; and, in the end, it is His will that our eternal existence (for good or bad!) will be experienced in the essential unity of body and soul. This is the inevitable conclusion raised by the Resurrection of Christ! Are you confused, hedging, doubtful, or even scandalized by this? So were the Corinthians, which is why Paul needed to explicitly address the issue here in chapter 15, insisting on the logical inferences drawn from belief in Christ’s Resurrection. Still have questions? See how Paul answers them in the continuation of this chapter tomorrow....
posted by FrPitstick | 9/18/2008
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