16 September 2022
Memorial of Saints Cornelius, Pope, and Cyprian, Bishop, Martyrs
In today’s first reading we here Paul’s impassioned proclamation of the centrality of Christ’s Resurrection for our faith: “If Christ has not been raised from the dead, then our faith is in vain…But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” At the heart of Paul’s message in 1 Corinthians is an encounter with the radical truth that Christ is alive and not dead, and that truth changes everything. This is no less true for us today then for Paul: Christianity proclaims that God is alive, Christ is alive, that Christ came back from the dead and conquered the grave, and this reality changes everything!
The Resurrection is the spiritual electricity that shocked the world two thousand years ago, and resuscitated the hearts of the Apostles into being men alive and on fire for Christ. Let us pray today to be charged with the reality of Christ’s Resurrection, Christ exalted in heaven, Christ glorified in his wounded body which proclaims that “O death where is thy sting!” Let us be Christians, like St. Paul, who are charged with the zeal that the Resurrected Christ infuses in us.