Word to the Wise
Saturday, September 23, 2006 - ST. PIO OF PIETRELCINO (Padre Pio)
[1 Corinthians 15:35-37, 42-49 and Luke 8:4-15]How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?
The question that is raised here by the Corinthians has a lot of context behind it that historians of philosophy and theology would find interesting, but Paul is engaged in a debate with his opponents in this letter. Behind the question is the insinuation that if Paul can't explain how the dead are raised or what they are like when raised, then there really is no such reality as the resurrection! In our more modern context, the question might be raised from the secular/scientific point of view which requires some kind of empirical or material or measurable "proof." Within the context of faith, I have been asked by faithful Christians about the matter of "life after death." So, the response to the question may have a different meaning depending on who is asking it! I sometimes respond by asking the person how they might imagine it? Do they want to be a particular age or look a particular way? Paul dismisses this kind of speculation as irrelevant! Paul responds in two ways. The first is by an analogy with plants. What is sown is radically different from what is grown! There is an echo of this in the Gospel of John, "Unless a seed falls into the ground and dies, it remains just a seed. But if it dies, it will bear much fruit...." (John 12:24) The body that is buried is not the body that lives with Christ. The second image concerns Adam. Paul refers to Christ as the "second Adam." The first is of the earth, the second is of heaven. The human person on earth is like Adam but will become like Christ. All of this is a matter of faith! We accept the fact that we will live beyond this life in some way with God. The way in which we will live with God has much to do with the way in which we live with God and neighbor presently! We will be different than we are now. That's about as much as the Bible will tell us. Although the Book of Revelations has some rather elaborate images, we must remember that those appear in a vision to the writer, and their content is not meant to be a description of what we will experience! We humans must live with our imaginations, but we must first live with our faith! AMEN
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