MOVING HOUSE
Feb. 25, 2004ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Seventh Sunday Year (C)ÝÝ 1 Cor. 15: 45-49 (Luke 6:27-38)ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ St. Patrickís parish is in Kowloon, Hong Kong.Ý There are four weekend Masses including a
childrenís Mass at 10:45, Sunday.Ý This
is the parish where I was formerly pastor. [email protected].Ý Cf. also Social Concerns Education: www.acpp.org --ÝÝ Fr. Gene Thalman M.M.]
Some of us are quite
content with our present life.Ý For many
of us the joys of life far outweigh the occasional rough times.Ý And when we think of our death, we feel sad
and maybe a little scared.Ý Death means
leaving behind all the lovely things of life: our family, our friends, our
work, our recreations and our easy chair.Ý
Furthermore we have difficulty imagining what our life will be like
after death. Given a choice, we would choose to remain right where we are now.
For
others, perhaps many of you sitting in this Church this morning, the sufferings
of this present life seem to outweigh the good times.Ý It may be that your own body causes you pain and frustration. It
may be some family problem or tragedy that makes life so tedious.Ý Or perhaps it is loneliness and
boredom.Ý For those of you who are now experiencing
this kind life, death has something to say for it.
And
in verses 35-38, Paul gives a simple example that the newly baptized
Corinthians could easily understand. Paul talks about a little seed.Ý Now this seed doesnít look like much of
anything. But then the seed is buried in the ground. And after a time the seed
turns into a beautiful flower.Ý Who
would ever think that that plain old seed could become a lovely flower? Even
the biggest tree is hidden in the life of a tiny seed.Ý Paul uses this example of the seed to
describe life after death: ìAfter we die, we will still be ìusî but oh what a
difference!
Next
in todayís reading (verses 45-49), Paul uses the example of Adam and Christ to
show the reason why this marvelous change will take place when we die. Paul
says: ìAdam ëbecame a living soul [human being]í. All the Corinthians
Christians agreed that Christ was infinitely greater than Adam. And they agreed
that the Risen Christ had a ìliving soulî that he inherited from Adam. But
Christ also was divine and he wished to share this divine life with us. Paul
said that the Risen Christ was a ìlife giving spirit.îÝÝ The Risen Christ intended to give us
ìlifeî. Therefore after death we would not only be the kind of human persons
that Adam was, we would also be the kind of glorious person that the Risen
Christ was.
To
repeat Paulís words in verse 49,
ìJust
as we resemble the man from earth (Adam) so shall we bear the likeness of the
man from heaven.î
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ After our Resurrection, what kind of body will we
have?Ý Paul tells us that we will be the
same person that we were in our earthly lifeóincluding our body.Ý But that our body will also be a new kind of
bodyólike the glorious body of our Risen Savior.
OUR CATECHISMÝÝ The 11th
Article of the Apostles Creed statesî
ÝìíI believe in the Resurrection of the body.íî
Ý
ÝìThe ëresurrection of the fleshí (the literal formulation of the
Apostlesí Creed) means not only that the immortal soul will live on after
death, but that even our ëmortal bodyí will come to life again.î
After our death with
Christ, we will still be ìyouî, ìheî, ìherî and ìmeî.Ý
Todayís
reading is a source of joy not only for the Corinthian Christian community but
for all of us who make up St. Patrickís community.Ý When this short life is past, we, all of us, the whole of usóall
that makes a human being a human being will continue to live on but in a
marvelous way. A real human being includes human spirit, human thoughts and
human memories.Ý A real human being
includes a face that people can recognize.Ý
A real human being includes bones, blood, skin, blood and all kinds of
organs and stuff inside. In other words we wonít be floating around like
disembodied shadows.Ý So to the
question: ìWhat kind of body will we have?îÝ
Paul and our Catechism answers: ìA real human body.î
Paul
quotes Isaias 64: 3
ìíEye
has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has it so much as dawned on man what God
has prepared for those who love him.íîÝ
Todayís scripture reading
is consolingóGod has prepared for us a wonderful surprise. Through the eyes of
Faith we can view our ìÖphysical deathî as completing our ëdying with Christí
and so completing our incorporation into him in his redeeming act.îÝ Those are the words of our Catechism.
That is why St. Therese of
Lisieux said when she was dying at the age of twenty-four years old: ìI am not
dying; I am entering life.îÝ St. Paul
said as he neared the end of his life: ìMy desire is to depart and be with
Christ.î
RESPONSE
May
I suggest that during the coming week, we read and think about what Paul has
written in the 15th chapter of St. Paulís Letter to the
Corinthians.Ý You may also read this
chapter to some elderly or sick person who needs some cheering up.
FINALEÝ
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Which chapter of St. Paulís First Letter to the
Corinthians do you intend to read this week? [ìChapter 15!î] Ö. I didnít hear
anything.ÝÝ
CHAPTER
15!
Feb. 25, 2004ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Seventh Sunday Year ©ÝÝ 1 Cor. 15: 45-49 (Luke 6:27-38)
TWO WORDS:Ý Joy of Resurrection
THEME:Ý We attempt to give some
indication of the glorious life that God is preparing for us.
TEXT:Ý ìPerhaps
someone will say, ëHow are the dead to be raised up?î
TYPE OF HOMILY:Ý Encouragement
RESPONSE
DESIRED RESULT:Ý Dear Father, My life has
been very difficult recently.Ý I have a
serious illness. As a result of last weekís homily, I kept thinking about the
kind of life that God is preparing for me.Ý
It made me feel kind of good.Ý I
think it is my special mission to show to non-Christians my joy and belief as I
prepare for death.
CHURCHíS POINT OF
VIEW
ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Article 11 ìíI believe in the Resurrection of the body.íîÝ Catechism of the Catholic Church, (Mission Hills: Benziger Publishing Co,
1994), P. 258
ìThe ëresurrection of the
fleshí (the literal formulation of the Apostlesí Creed) means not only that the
immortal soul will live on after death, but that even our ëmortal bodyí will
come to life again.î Ibid.Ý #990, p.
258.
ÝìÖphysical death completes this ëdying with Christí and so
completes our incorporation into him in his redeeming act.îÝ Ibid. #1010, p. 263.
ìIn death, God calls man
to himself.Ý Therefore the Christian can
experience a desire for death like St. Paulís ëMy desire is to depart and be
with Christ.íî (Phil.1: 23) Ibid. 1011 p. 263.
ìI am not dying; I am
entering life.î Ibid. 1011 p. 264 (quoting St. Therese of Lisieux, The Last Conversations.)
REFERENCES:
ìWe
must reassert here what has already been presented in chapter 5ónamely that the
human person not simply an embodied spirit, in the sense that the body is base,
inhuman, and without intrinsic worth. ëHoliness is wholenessí (Goldbrunner)
ÖOur hope is not simply the salvation of our soul but the salvation of our
whole being.î Richard P. McBrien, Catholicism Study Edition,Ý (Minneapolis, MN: Winston Press, 1981) p.
1149.
ìNor
is our resurrection at the end of the resurrection only of so many
individuals.Ý Our bodiliness also is the
natural basis of our solidarity with others and through them with God.Ý We are human insofar as we are oriented
towards others.Ý And our orientation
toward others is made possible and necessary by our bodiliness.Ý The doctrine of the resurrection of the body
is the foundation for the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.Ý The life after death is also communal life.
And thus, too, the resurrection of the body cannot be achieved until the
consummation of history itself.îÝ Ibid.
p. 1150
ìFor
him [Paul] the resurrection in which we all hope will be a resurrection of
the body (1 Corinthians 15), because the body (soma) is intrinsic to
the being of the human person (1 Corinthians 15:15-19), ëBodyí is not just that
through which the spirit acts; it is the whole person.Ý This notion of the body does not eliminate
the traditional idea of the soul.Ý
Rather it emphasizes the until of the human person.î Ibid. p. 145.
[Do we have to wait till the last day to enjoy our glorified bodily
existence?]
ìIt
is not biblical usage to speak of a purely disembodied soul of man.
ìHow then are we to understand the texts?Ý They speak of a ëtodayí with reference to
something which is not entirely without a body.Ý And at the same time, they speak of those who ëshall liveí after
death.Ý What message is to be read here?
It seems to be that we are to think of the ëtodayí as something that has
already begun, and that it is not without the body.Ý In other words, existence after death is already something
like the resurrection of the new body.î The New Catechism: Catholic
Faith for Adults (New York: Herder and Herder, 1967) Ýpp. 473-474.
When
I was a kid, I had a picture of ìlife after deathî as wearing a white angel
suit, playing a harp and singing the kind of hymns that God likes.Ý And although I would have
a body it wouldnít be much like my present bodyóperhaps mostly a lot of
air.Ý There wouldnít be much in the line
of skin, bones, muscles and blood. To be quite
frank, life after death didnít seem like a lot of fun. The only positive aspect
was that it would be better than the other place.
The
sermon is personally of great interest to me and I suspect to fellow
septenarians.
Feb. 25, 2004ÝÝÝÝÝÝÝÝ Seventh Sunday Year ©ÝÝ 1 Cor. 15: 45-49 (Luke 6:27-38)
NAME_________ Grade_____________
1.Ý
__T/FÝ After death we will be
floating around like happy ghosts.
2.Ý To
describe the difference between our present kind of existence and our existence
with the
ÝÝÝÝ Risen
Christ as the difference between a flower ________ and a beautiful flower.
3.ÝÝ From
Adam we have inherited a ________ body.Ý
From Christ we receive a _________body.
4.ÝÝ After
death we will bear the likeness of the man from ______ and the man from
_________.
5.Ý
(Optional) Write something about you imagine life after death to be.