The Sunday Sermon Archive

Dear Friend,

Jesus Christ is God and with the same power that He brought back to life the youth of Naim, the daughter of Jairus and Lazarus, Jesus Christ raised Himself from the dead. Jesus expressed and predicted this truth when He said: "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up." (John 2:19) And still more clearly He says: "I lay down My life, that I may take it again. No man taketh it away from Me, but I lay it down of Myself, and I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again." (John 10: 17, 18)

Therefore we see clearly that Jesus Christ is true God and true Man. Only man can die and only God can give life where there previously was none.

On the last day everyone will rise from the dead, not by their own power but by the almighty power of God. The good will have a glorious resurrection while the wicked will rise only to unite their bodies with their souls in the everlasting fires of Hell.

St. Paul tells us that we will rise with a glorified body like our Lord's: "Our Lord Jesus Christ will reform the body of our lowness made like the body of His glory." (Phil. 3: 21).

We will take on a brightness like that of Jesus when He transformed Himself on Mount Thabor. "His face did shine as the sun, and His garments became white as snow." (Matt. 17: 2) This transformation was temporary on Mount Thabor but was permanent after the Resurrection. And the good will likewise have this permanent brightness after their resurrection from the dead.

After our resurrection we (the good) will be incapable of suffering and death. Christ when He became man truly suffered all that we suffer. Just as we hunger, thirst, or suffer from heat and cold and die, so did He. But, after His resurrection He suffered nothing, and can die no more. "We know that Christ, rising again from the dead, dieth now no more; death shall no more have dominion over Him." (Rom. 6:9.)

Christ manifested in His glorified body Agility. He was no longer constrained by space and time. And His body possessed subtility so that He, still with a physical body, could pass through objects just as a spirit can. All these properties (but in a less degree) we will possesses after a glorious resurrection.

Considering this glorious destination of our bodies we should be motivated to keep our bodies and senses pure and unsullied. We must hold our bodies and senses in honor; only employing them for the service of God.

Christ maintained the marks of His wounds even in His resurrected body. In this manner there could be no doubt that He is really and truly one and the same both before and after the resurrection. St. Bernard says: "Happy marks of the wounds which attest the truth of the Resurrection and the Divinity of Christ."

These wounds are tokens of our redemption and of the opening of Heaven. The sight of these wounds moves God to compassion for us. Just as the rainbow is a reminder that God will never destroy the earth by flood again, so the wounds of Christ constantly remind us of God's mercy towards us. And on the day of judgment these wounds will be visible to all. They will be a consolation to the just and a condemnation and terror to the wicked.

That the wounds of Christ may not on the day of judgment be to us an object of consternation and terror, but a source of consolation and joy, let us renew to day our firm resolution to lead a good, pious, Catholic life. If we have previously defiled our conscience with various sins, let us cleanse it by a good confession; subdue our passions; mortify all inordinate inclinations; and remove everything displeasing to God. Let us be fervent in prayer, and practice as far as we can the Christian virtues.

We must follow Christ by walking constantly in the path of justice, so that one day we may come forth from the grave with a glorified body and obtain in heaven the unfading palm of victory over the world, death, and hell.

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