Death is behind us, in front of us God of the living says Pope

Death is behind us, in front of us God of the living says PopeDuring the Angelus in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis focused on Sunday’s Gospel reading, in which Jesus tackled the Sadducees, those who denied that there could be a resurrection. The Sadducees, Pope Francis said, put the following question to Jesus, in an attempt to ridicule the belief in resurrection: “A woman has had seven husbands, who died one after the other. Now at the resurrection, whose wife will that woman be?” First of all, the Pope said, Jesus explains that life after death has different parameters from our life on earth: eternal life is a different life, in a dimension where, among other things, matrimony will no longer exist. The risen, Jesus says, will be like angels and they will live in a different state of being, which we cannot achieve or even imagine right now.
But then, Pope Francis continued, Jesus counterattacks, so to speak: He finds proof of the resurrection in the episode of Moses and the burning bush, where God reveals himself as the God of Abraham of Isaac and of Jacob. The name of God, Pope Francis explained, is tied to the names of the men and women to whom He ties Himself and this tie is stronger than death. This is why Jesus affirms: “He is not the God of the dead, but of the living: for all live to Him” (Luke 20:38). And the most important tie is with Jesus: He is the Alliance, He is the Life and the Resurrection, because with His crucified love He defeated death. In Jesus, the Pope said, God gives us eternal life: He gives it to everyone, and everyone, thanks to Him, can hope to live a life even more real than this one. The life that God has in store for us is not simply a better version of this one: it goes beyond our imagination, because God continually surprises us with His love and mercy.
Therefore, Pope Francis explained, what will happen is exactly the opposite of what the Sadducees expected. This life cannot be the standard for eternity: it is eternity, on the contrary, that illuminates our life on earth, and gives each of us hope. If we only look through human eyes, the Pope continued, we tend to say that the path of man goes from life towards death. But Jesus turns this perspective on its head, and affirms that our pilgrimage goes from death towards a fuller life. So, the Pope concluded, death is behind us, not in front of us. In front of us is the God of the living, the definitive defeat of sin and death, the start of a new time of joy and endless light. But already on this earth – in prayers, in Sacraments, in fraternity – we encounter Jesus and his love, and so we can get a small taste of the risen life.
More Missionaries News Updates

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

D G S Dhinakaran

Image
Dr.Duraisamy Geoffery Samuel Dhinakaran, was an Indian Evangelical Preacher and founder of the Jesus Calls Ministry, born on July 1, 1935 at Surandai in Tirunelveli District of Tamil Nadu, India. He attended St.John`s college, Palayamkottai and subsequently was awarded a Bachelor degree in Mathematics from Madras University in 1955. He had a very tough life being torn by the ailments of poverty and agony of unemployment. Unable to bear the agony of these problems, on February 11, 1955, Dr.D.G.S.Dhinakaran decided to put an end to his life. He started towards the nearest railway track in his village to throw himself before the speeding train when he was stopped by his uncle who introduced Jesus Christ. He experienced a sudden wave of divine peace and hope, flood his heart. His mind was transformed and he returned home enlightened. After this incident, things started happening in him supernaturally. There arose an unquenchable thirst in him to spend hours together poring over the lif...
More +

India Celebrates World Sunday School Day

Image
The "World Sunday School" was founded with a great challenge to save and shape the children community after seeing thousands and thousands of street children who neither go to school nor to Church by Serampore trio (William Carey, Joshua Marshman, and William Ward) in India at 1803. Every year first Sunday of November, the "World Sunday School Day", was observed by the Churches. The day is being observed to commemorate the day and its significant change of effective effects towards this modern world especially to the children of the Sunday School in nurturing their shape in way of how a good Christian by birth should adapt to grow in the society through the foot-steps of Christianity's religion principles.
More +

Charles Mead

Image
Rev.Charles Mead was the Father of the South Travancore Mission, born on 1st October 1792 at Bristol, Gloucester, England. He was brought up by his uncle Rev.John Hunt at Wakefield, Yorkshire, attended Gosport Missionary School and ordained at Chichester on 6th March 1816. According to the London Mission Society’s report, Rev.Charles Mead was nominated for Travancore as Rev.Ringeltaube’s successor. He married Rev.Hunt’s daughter. He left from England on 20th April, 1816 for Travancore and arrived at Madras on 28th August 1816 along with Rev.Richard Knill, who known as the pastor of the church at St Petersburg. He was received by Rev.Loveless, who was the first England missionary of Madras. Rev.Mead was detained a considerable time at Rev.Loveless’s house at Madras by his wife's ill-health and he studied Tamil. There after he gave early intimation of his arrival to Col.Munro and consulted him on various subjects related to the mission affairs and solicited help. After one year back,...
More +