Word to the Wise
Friday, September 16, 2022 - Friday in the 24th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Cor 15:12-20 and Luke 8:1-3]For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all. But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first-fruits of those who have fallen asleep. [1 Cor.]
SEPTEMBER 16 STS. CORNELIUS AND CYPRIAN, martyrs
A fundamental belief of Christianity is that Christ rose from the dead and that we shall also rise at the end of time when he comes again. At every celebration of the Eucharist, we can say after the consecration: "We proclaim your death, O Lord and profess your resurrection until you come again." St. Paul's Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 15, is a statement of our faith and is read at Easter when we celebrate Christ's resurrection. There were questions in the Corinthian community about this. They weren't alone. We are told in the Acts of the Apostles that when Paul preached in Athens, some of the audience were very skeptical of this belief (Acts 17:32), but others were attracted.
Paul's argument is that if Christ is not risen, what is the source of our ultimate hope? There would be no point to his death other than being a martyr executed by the Romans. Indeed, the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus, before their encounter with the Risen Lord, speaks to the initial disappointment of the disciples until Jesus appeared to them on the road. The dismay of the disciples in the upper room (e.g. Thomas) is also testimony to the impact of realizing that Christ had truly risen. It is this hope that the Holy Spirit fortified on Pentecost and motivated them (and us) to preach the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ at the cost of their own lives.
In Saturday's first scripture, Paul will go on to answer further questions about the resurrection of the dead. Stay tuned! AMEN
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