Sunday Vigil
Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Whoever lives and believes in me
will never die.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
1 Corinthians 15,35-37.42-49
Someone may ask: How are dead people raised, and what sort of body do they have when they come? How foolish! What you sow must die before it is given new life; and what you sow is not the body that is to be, but only a bare grain, of wheat I dare say, or some other kind; It is the same too with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable; what is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious; what is sown is weak, but what is raised is powerful; what is sown is a natural body, and what is raised is a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is a spiritual body too. So the first man, Adam, as scripture says, became a living soul; and the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit. But first came the natural body, not the spiritual one; that came only afterwards. The first man, being made of earth, is earthly by nature; the second man is from heaven. The earthly man is the pattern for earthly people, the heavenly man for heavenly ones. And as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so we shall bear the likeness of the heavenly one.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
If you believe, you will see the glory of God,
thus says the Lord.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
How do we rise from the dead? It was a widespread question among the Christians of Corinth. In order to answer this question the apostle uses the example of the seed (the earthly body), which, once it has died, becomes a plant (the risen body). He uses this image to affirm that on the day of the resurrection we will be the same and yet different: we will have our "flesh" (our identity) but we will be clothed in incorruptibility, that is will be risen. We could say that the resurrection is the end of a process that lasts our entire life. None of us can imagine what a risen body is like. But we can get some idea of it from the Gospel stories that narrate the days Jesus spent with the disciples after Easter. The Gospels present the same Jesus who had suffered death on the cross - he still bears the mark of the nails in his feet, hands and on his side - and yet he is different: the two disciples of Emmaus did not recognize him immediately, nor did Mary and the other disciples. We need to be with him, to listen to him and stay with him in order to recognize him risen. We can only recognize a spiritual body if we are "spiritual" people. Paul suggests that the resurrection - both to be understood and mostly to be welcomed - requires an interior journey, a transformation of the heart and the mind as well as of the body, a transformation of our attitudes. In fact it is a matter of receiving the "seeds of immortality" in us. And the seeds of immortality are the Gospel, the holy liturgy, communion with believers, love for the poor, commitment to peace and fraternity with the nations. By practicing all this the seed of immortality given to us on the day of our Baptism grows in us: a seed that must be guarded, protected, and cultivated every day.