he Word of God on the last Sunday of the liturgical year invites us to look at the end of man and history. This world is ending. Does it have a future?
The Gospel of Matthew 25:1-13 intends to place us before the second coming of the Lord. And it is a whole catechesis to a community of believers that was falling into certain disillusionment because of the delay of that announced and desired coming. The disillusionment that leads to focus on the meaning of life in other more immediate things and forget to prepare the arrival of the Lord. Hence the final cry of the gospel: Watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour.
The atmosphere of the community of St. Paul (1 Thess. 4:12-17) is more animated. Everyone is waiting for the coming of the Lord immediately. In a few months or years, the Lord will return. And they prepare his coming with the ardor that the enthusiastic Paul instills in them. But there is a problem. A few years have passed, and some of those baptized into Christ are dying before the coming of the Lord. What will happen to these? A problem that St. Paul solves by affirming the resurrection of these brothers at the very moment when the Lord returns. They will participate in the courtship with which all will return to the Father’s house.
On this Sunday I want to focus on this truth of “the resurrection of the dead. The theme of vigilance, of preparing for the coming of the Lord, of being awake, etc.
I believe in the resurrection of the dead because I believe in the faithfulness of God the Creator. God creates and creates for life.
I believe in the resurrection of the dead because God is God of the living. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are alive to God. And with them all who have been blessed in them. Therefore, death does not break that link with the God of Life. That Life is stronger than death, and communion with that Life precedes biological death.
I believe in the resurrection of the dead, because Christ on the cross said to the good thief, “TODAY you will be with me in paradise. Through death, one enters into God’s TODAY. A different space-time that permanently touches our historical space-time that at the moment of death opens to become eternal.
I believe in the resurrection of the dead because Jesus RISED ON THE THIRD DAY FROM AMONG THE DEAD. And with Him, we will all rise.
