Dear Friends in Christ
Sacred Scripture teaches us that death was not part of God's original plan for mankind. It is a consequence of the sin of our first parents. Through His resurrection Christ demonstrated His power over death: God our Father, by raising Christ Your Son you conquered the power of death and open for us the way to eternal life. So prays the Church in the opening prayer of the Easter Mass. With His Resurrection Christ has robbed death of its sting. He has made His death an act of redemption. It is to Him and with Him and in Him that our bodies will rise again on the last day. They will be united with our souls, which if we have been faithful, will have been giving glory to God since the time of our death, if there was no need for purification. To resurrect means to lift up something that has fallen down, to bring again to life that which was dead, to restore to life that which is succumbed to dust. The Church has always taught that the Resurrection of Christ is the foundation of our faith, she consistently believes in the resurrection of our physical bodies in which we live, subsist and move. The soul will then be reunited with its proper body. Our meditation on these teachings, especially in the readings of the Mass of this Sunday, help us to grasp the great dignity of each person, a dignity which is distinct and superior to that of any other being in creation. Human beings not only have free will, but we are the divine masterpiece made in the image and likeness of our Creator, gifted with an immortal soul by divine gift (St Cyril of Jerusalem). Man is superior to all other creatures because he can be a temple of the Holy Spirit, as long, that is, as we are in a state of grace. St Paul insisted with the early Christians on the importance of this idea: Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? During this month of November, we renew our faith and hope in the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting, and pray with renewed vigour, for the souls of our departed brothers and sisters in the Faith. May God bless you and may the souls of the Faithful departed, rest in peace.
Msgr Kevin Hale
Priest@LourdesLeigh.org ✚ 01702 478078
The Sunday Homily is available as a podcast at LourdesLeigh.org