Resurrection of the Body

Assumption

Rev 11: 19a, 12:1-6a, 10ab; 1 Cor 15: 20-27; Lk 1: 39-56

By Deacon Larry Brockman

 

A paradox!  Life is a paradox, because all of us will experience physical death.  And yet, as our first reading predicts, at the second coming of Christ, humanity’s last enemy, death, will be destroyed, and destroyed forever.  That means that none of those who are saved will really die.  So, all of us are going to die; and yet all of us who are saved will not die but live forever- seemingly a paradox.   

 

I just attended my Cousin Jack’s funeral Monday.  He was the first of my generation in my family to die.  It brought home to me the reality of my own mortality; and that got me thinking about the real implications of the Assumption.  Our church teaches that when we die, we don’t really die; rather, we transition to a different kind of life.  It’s the resurrected state of life in the Kingdom of God that Paul talks about in Corinthians.  But that is not all, because somehow, we will all be reunited with our bodies after the Last Judgment.  Recall that we profess just that in the Apostles Creed.  When we say “I believe in the resurrection of the body”!   

 

Now Jesus lived amongst His disciples for 40 days after Easter in His resurrected body.  So there is the first instance of a resurrected body.  Today, the feast of the Assumption we celebrate a second incidence of a human who remains in their resurrected body- the Blessed Mother.  And so, the implications of the Assumption are clear.  It is not just God the Son, Jesus, who somehow will retain His body in the resurrected state in the kingdom of God but as promised, Christ has conquered death for all of us who are saved, so all of us humans will be reunited with our bodies somehow as well.  Mary is proof of that, and Mary has been seen over the centuries in her resurrected body by many.  She was and is not divine, but fully human, just like you and I.  And so, life remains a paradox- our bodies die, yet somehow, we will not die but will ultimately live forever reunited with our bodies when Christ returns.   

 

Now there are a couple of important points to make about all of this.  First, how we can be reunited with our bodies, and just what will these bodies be like. Well, these are mysteries- like the incarnation and the resurrection of Jesus are mysteries of faith.  Yes, like many of the tenets of our Faith, we are called to believe in these mysteries of faith. 

 

Second, the experiences of Mary and Jesus in their resurrected bodies are validation of the reality of both the promise of our resurrection and life in the kingdom and the actual demonstration of that reality.  So, although we are called upon to accept as a mystery how all that happens; we have been gifted with the demonstration of that reality through the Gospel account of Jesus resurrection and the appearances of Mary throughout history.   

 

For most of us, when a loved one dies, it seems as if a permanent wall comes down that separates us from them.  We say that we believe that they continue to live, only life has changed for them, but for us, they seem so totally gone.  It’s part of the grieving process that we go through.  Sometimes that feeling of grief is so great that it can cause both doubt in the resurrection, and fear of death of ourselves in our minds.  We see that apparent permanent wall, and it just seems so daunting and real.  Well, that’s what makes the Assumption, and the centuries of validated appearances of Mary, so important for us to recognize, because Mary lifts for us that veil of separation.   

 

In the reading from Corinthians today, Paul says it all very well from a theological perspective.  Christ was raised; the first fruits.  And all of us will follow in the right order when Christ returns.  So, we really don’t need to fear death at all.  But, do we really believe that.  Most of us want validation, and Mary’s Assumption that we celebrate today, is part of our validation.   

 

So rejoice, because our Blessed mother has shown us the reality of our future destiny.  Life everlasting, reunited in our bodies, in the Kingdom of God.

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