Today’s First Reading from St. Paul to the Thessalonians is a verse that is special to my soul. When my Sister-in-Law’s beloved Mother died, she asked that I choose and give one of the Readings at the funeral Mass. While I was honored that she wanted me to participate, I saw it as complete obedience to our Lord – to share the immense hope that can only be found in Him.
As a catechist and disciple of Christ, I am moved by the Holy Spirit to bring this good news to those He puts in front of me. My heart ached for my dear Sister-in-Law and her family, but at the same time was burning to share the hope that’s in our own Resurrection. Yes! Our own Resurrection. I knew that, although many there were Christians, they did not know. So I chose this verse by St. Paul because it consoles us with hope. Hope, because like Christ, we will rise.
“We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives for ever, so after death the righteous will live for ever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day. Our resurrection, like his own, will be the work of the Most Holy Trinity.” (Catechism, Para. 989)
Today the Reading came up in the Liturgy again, and once more it ignited the flame in my heart to share it.
Did you know?
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“We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,
about those who have fallen asleep,
so that you may not grieve like the rest, who have no hope.
For if we believe that Jesus died and rose,
so too will God, through Jesus,
bring with him those who have fallen asleep.
Indeed, we tell you this, on the word of the Lord,
that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord,
will surely not precede those who have fallen asleep.
For the Lord himself, with a word of command,
with the voice of an archangel and with the trumpet of God,
will come down from heaven,
and the dead in Christ will rise first.
Then we who are alive, who are left,
will be caught up together with them in the clouds
to meet the Lord in the air.
Thus we shall always be with the Lord.
Therefore, console one another with these words” (1 Thes 4:13-18).
