The seed of eternity planted within us calls us to respect the lives of all people, particularly those who suffer.
This was the central theme of Pope Francis’ catechesis on the Creed during this morning’s General Audience.
Reflecting on the “Resurrection of the Body”, the Holy Father began by presenting several aspects of this affirmation, saying that our own resurrection is linked to the resurrection of Jesus. “The fact that He is risen is the proof the resurrection of the dead exists,” the Pope said.
The Holy Father explained that Ezekiel’s vision of the dry bones returning to life is fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
“Jesus has come among us, he made Himself man like us in everything, except sin, in this way He has taken us with Him on the path of returning to the Father,” the Pope said. “He, the Word Incarnate, who died for us a rose again, gives the Holy Spirit to His disciples as a deposit of the full communion in his glorious Kingdom, that we await for vigilantly.”
Awaiting this, he went on to say, is the reason for our hope in the resurrection of the body. The more we have this reality of hope in front of us, the less we are burdened by the daily worries we face.
Focusing on the second aspect, on the meaning of the resurrection, the Pope told the faithful that in the last days, God will reunite the body with the soul, by virtue of the resurrection of Jesus.
“This transformation of our body comes prepared in this life from the relationship with Jesus in the Sacraments, especially the Eucharist,” he said. “We, who in this life our nourished by his Body and His Blood will resurrect like Him, with Him and through Him. As Jesus rose again with his own body, but did not return to an earthly life, so do we rise again with our bodies that will be transfigured in glorious bodies.”
Concluding his catechesis, Pope Francis said that through the Sacrament of Baptism, we share in the Resurrection of Christ. Calling Baptism the “seed of resurrection”, the 76 year old Pontiff explained that this seed sown in us brings us to anticipate the resurrection.
“For this reason even the body of each one of us is an echo of eternity, and must always be respected; and above all, the lives of those who suffer must be respected and loved so that they may feel the closeness of the Kingdom of God, of that condition of eternal life towards which we are walking,” he said. (J.A.E.)
