A reading from the First Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians(15:35-49)
Someone will ask, ‘How are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?’ Fool! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And as for what you sow, you do not sow the body that is to be, but a bare seed, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. Not all flesh is alike, but there is one flesh for human beings, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are both heavenly bodies and earthly bodies, but the glory of the heavenly is one thing, and that of the earthly is another. There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars; indeed, star differs from star in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonour, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown a physical body, it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, ‘The first man, Adam, became a living being’; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the physical, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so are those who are of the dust; and as is the man of heaven, so are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we will also bear the image of the man of heaven.
From hisCommentary on Johnby St. Cyril of Alexandria
Christ was numbered among the dead. For our sake he was put to death in the body, even though of himself and through his Father we believe him to be, and indeed he is, life itself. In order to do all that was required by God, all that was involved in his having become man, he freely submitted the temple of his body not only to death, but to everything that accompanies it, to the laying out of his body and its burial in a tomb. The Evangelist [John] says that his tomb was in a garden and that it was new. This teaches us in a symbolic way that it is through Christ’s death that we gain entry into paradise: he entered as the forerunner on our behalf. The newness of the tomb suggests the new and untrodden path from death to life and the renewal by which Christ frees us from corruption. By Christ’s death, our death has been transformed into something quite new, more like a kind of sleep.We are alive to God now, as Scripture says, and destined to live for ever. This is why St Paul frequently refers to those who have died in Christ as ‘those who have fallen asleep’.
In the past the power of death had always prevailed against our nature.From the time of Adam to the time of Moses, death ruled over all, even over those who did not sin, as Adam did, by disobeying God’s command. We bore the image of the earthly man, Adam, and underwent the death inflicted by the divine curse, but when the second Adam who is divine
and from heaven appeared among us, he fought for the lives of us all, purchased them by his own death in the flesh and then, having destroyed the power of corruption, he rose again. In this way he transformed us into his own image, so that the death we now undergo is of a new kind: it does not lead to eternal destruction, but is rather a sleep, full of good hope. In fact, it resembles the death of Christ, who opened up for us this new pathway to life.
Musical Selection
How I long to breathe the air of Heaven
Where pain is gone and mercy fills the streets
To look upon the One who bled to save me
And walk with Him for all eternity
There will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord
And every prayer we prayed in desperation
The songs of faith we sang through doubt and fear
In the end, we'll see that it was worth it
When He returns to wipe away our tears
Oh, there will be a day when all will bow before Him
There will be a day when death will be no more
Standing face to face with He who died and rose again
Holy, holy is the Lord
And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain"
And on that day, we join the resurrection
And stand beside the heroes of the faith
With one voice, a thousand generations
Sing, "Worthy is the Lamb who was slain"
"Forever He shall reign"
So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord
So let it be today we shout the hymn of Heaven
With angels and the saints, we raise a mighty roar
Glory to our God who gave us life beyond the grave
Holy, holy is the Lord
Holy, holy is the Lord
Holy, holy is the Lord
Prayer
O God,
Creator and Redeemer of all the faithful,
grant your servants forgiveness of all their sins
and let our prayers obtain for them
the pardon for which they always longed.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,