THE GOSPEL OF LIFE

The promise of life after death is assured solely by the resurrection of Jesus “Because I live, you shall live also.” No Christian should ever base his faith on anything but the word of God as interpreted by the church.

Though we are prone to skirt the issue of death, Jesus talks about it repeatedly. He talks about it because He has the Good news to share with us about how He defeated death— actually trampled upon it by His own death-in-order to grant to those who are in the tombs, and to each one of us as we face our own death, the promise of everlasting life.

St. John Chrysostom summarized the Christian’s attitude toward death when he wrote: “When a dear one dies, unbeliever sees a cadaver, but the Christian sees a body asleep. The unbeliever says the dead person has ‘gone’. We agree, but we remember where he has gone where the apostle Paul is, where Peter is, where the whole company of Saints are. We remember that he will rise, not with tears of dismay, but with splendor and glory.”