WE PUT OUR TRUST IN THE LORD

VI SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME - 1 Corinthians 15:12, 16-20

Within us, there is a profound desire for life, and we never accept death as the end of our lives. Despite being confronted by death, we never get used to it. We pray and hope that death will not have the last word. For those who believe death is the gateway to God’s world, where we will be welcomed by him to share in his glory. However, we may be called upon to face reality and accept inevitable death as the end of our dreams.

In the Church of Jesus Christ, his disciples meet every Sunday to celebrate his resurrection, believing that we will rise to eternal life with him if we pass through death with him. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the nucleus of our faith. We, the followers of Jesus Christ, believe that Jesus rose from the dead and became the “firstborn from the dead” (Col 1:18), with us following him behind. As he rose, we shall rise to eternal life in his Kingdom.

Faith in the resurrection of Jesus has been faced with doubts and denial from the beginning. The religious leaders in Jerusalem accused the Apostles of stealing Jesus’ body and then spread the lie (falsity) of his resurrection. When Paul announced the resurrection of Jesus in Athens, people laughed at him, considering it a fairytale. It is no surprise then that many people refused to believe in the resurrection of the dead. That’s why, in his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul had to reassert this essential point of the Christian faith: “If Christ raised from the dead is what has been preached, how can some of you be saying that there is no resurrection of the dead?” And Paul concludes: “... if the dead are not raised, Christ has not been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, you are still in your sins.” “If our hope in Christ has been for this life only, we are the most unfortunate of all people.”

The resurrection implies that our bodily dimension will share in the glory of God. Paul wrote to the Philippians: Christ “will transform our lowly body to be like his glorious body” (Phil 3:21). The whole person will be saved, body and soul.

We must strengthen our faith in the resurrection, which is the source of our hope. We know that God will remain faithful to his promise, and he will set us free from the corruption that enslaves us. We put our trust in the Lord. Indeed, “Happy the man who has placed his trust in the Lord.”