“It is a sign of maturity to understand well the logic of the past. It is a sign of maturity to move in the logic of the present – in both that of yesterday and that of today,» Pope Francis has said, stressing, «It is also a sign of maturity to have prudence to see the logic of tomorrow, of the future.
According to Vatican Radio, the Pontiff said this during his daily morning Mass today, as he reflected on the “logic” of Christian faith.
This ‘logic’ of the faith, he explained, is the fundamental way of thinking that arises from real assent to the truth claims that Christianity advances, and the ‘logic’ of “the day after tomorrow,” he shared, is one that looks forward to the resurrection of the body.
«It takes a great grace of the Holy Spirit,» Francis admitted, «to understand this logic of the day after tomorrow – after the transformation – when He will come and take us – all changed – on clouds, to stay forever with Him.»
Logic of the Risen Christ
The Holy Father drew his inspiration this morning from the First Letter of Paul to the Corinthians (15:12-20), in which the Apostle to the Gentiles, specifically addresses the certainty of Christian faith in bodily resurrection, rooted in our certainty that Christ is risen from the dead.
The Pontiff stressed that this ‘day after tomorrow’ logic is the logic of the Risen Christ. “It is easy for all of us to enter into the logic of the past, because it is concrete,” and it is also “easy to enter into the logic of the here-and-now, because we see it.”
However, when we look to the future, Francis commented, then we think, it is “better not to think,” or at least, to not think it all the way through.
“The logic of yesterday is easy. The logic of today is easy. The logic of the future is easy: all die. But the logic of the day after tomorrow, this is difficult. And this is what Paul wants to preach today: the logic of the day after tomorrow. How will it be? How will He be? The resurrection: Christ is risen. Christ is risen and it is quite clear that He has not been raised as a ghost. In the passage from Luke about the resurrection [we read]: ‘But touch me.’ A ghost has no flesh, no bones. ‘Touch me. Feed me.’ The logic of the day after tomorrow is the logic in which enters the flesh.”
The Pope observed how we ask ourselves how the sky will be, or whether “we will all be there,” but, “we do not reach what Paul wants us to understand – this logic of the day after tomorrow.”
When we think that “everything will be spiritual” and “we are afraid of flesh,” the Jesuit Pope warned, “we betray a certain Gnosticism,”
Do not forget, he said, “this was the first heresy” that the apostle John condemns: “Who says that the Word of God does not come in the flesh is Antichrist”:
“We are afraid to accept and bear the ultimate consequences to the flesh of Christ. a spiritualistic piety is easier, a gossamer pietism; but to enter into the logic of the flesh of Christ, this is difficult. And this is the logic of the day after tomorrow. We will be resurrected as Christ is risen, with our flesh.”
While recalling that the early Christians asked about how Jesus was resurrected, Francis pointed out that it is in the faith in the resurrection of the body, that the works of mercy have their deepest root cause. Francis also recalled how the Apostle Paul stresses how our bodies will be transformed.
The Lord “lets Himself be seen, and touched, and he ate with the disciples after the Resurrection,” Francis reminded the faithful, noting this “is the logic of the day after tomorrow, one that we find difficult to understand.»
Pope Francis concluded, praying for faithful to ask the Lord for the grace of this faith to enter into this logic.
