We have just been through two special days in the Church, when we commemorated all our deceased brothers in the faith (All Souls’ Day) and those among them who are already in heaven (All Saints’ Day). It is, therefore, very appropriate that the gospel of today talks about the future resurrection of all men.
When faced with the thought, or even the proximate possibility of death, the Christian should not fall into a dark pessimism, as if death were the end of everything that he strove for all his life.
Death is a very important event, but it is not the end. We all have an immortal soul; and besides, at the end of the world, we shall all rise again with our bodies.
The resurrection at the end of the world is a truth of our faith. Human reason alone cannot discover this future event. We firmly believe that it will happen because God Himself has told us so. And in today’s gospel, Jesus Christ Himself brilliantly answers the objections of the pilosopos of His time.
Yes, as the liturgy says, “Life is never taken away, it is only changed.” Life is changed from a struggle and meriting, to a life of eternal reward or punishment. All men will rise again, but some will rise to glory and happiness while others will rise to damnation and sorrow.
We can draw some practical conclusions from the truth of the future resurrection of our bodies. In the first place, instead of being frightened to inaction and paralysis at the thought of death, we should be spurred on by that idea, to earn the eternal reward of heaven and our glorious resurrection.
The sickness and suffering that we all undergo in this life will be surpassed by the eternal state of glory and happiness that we all hope to achieve.
In the second place, we must be imbued with a deep reverence for our bodies and the bodies of other people. Christianity has never considered the body as something bad.
On the contrary, although the body has to be disciplined because of the effects of original sin, it has to be respected and, out of respect, it has to be treated with dignity and not just as an instrument of pleasure or exploitation.
This reverence for the body is manifested, among other things, by the virtue of modesty. Modesty is not something of the past. Modesty is a safeguard for human dignity and for the respect we owe ourselves and other people.