Resurrection is a fact

1 Let me remind you, broth ers and sisters, of the Good News that I preached to you and which you received and on which you stand firm.

2 By that Gospel you are saved, provided that you hold to it as I preached it. Otherwise, you will have believed in vain.

3 In the first place, I have passed on to you what I myself received: that Christ died for our sins, as Scripture says;

4 that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day, according to the Scriptures;

5 that he appeared to Ce phas and then to the Twelve.

6 Afterwards he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters together; most of them are still alive, although some have already gone to rest.

7 Then he ap peared to James and after that to all the apostles.

8 And last of all, he appeared to the most despicable of them, this is to me.

9 For I am the last of the apostles, and I do not even deserve to be called an apostle, be cause I persecuted the Church of God.

10 Nevertheless, by the grace of God, I am what I am, and his grace towards me has not been without fruit. Far from it, I have toiled more than all of them, although not I, rather the grace of God in me.

11 Now, whether it was I or they, this we preach and this you have believed.

12 Well, then, if Christ is preached as risen from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?

13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then Christ has not been raised.

14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is empty and our belief comes to nothing.

15 And we become false witnesses of God, at testing that he raised Christ, where as he could not raise him if indeed the dead are not raised.

16 If the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised.

17 And if Christ has not been raised, your faith gives you nothing, and you are still in sin.

18 Also those who fall asleep in Christ are lost.

19 If it is only for this life that we hope in Christ, we are the most unfortunate of all people.


Christ gave us the way

20 But no, Christ has been raised from the dead and he comes before all those who have fallen asleep.

21 A human being brought death; a human being also brings resurrection of the dead.

22 All die for being Adam¡¯s, and in Christ all will receive life.

23 How ever, each one in his own time: first Christ, then Christ¡¯s people, when he comes.

24 Then the end will come, when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father, after having de stroyed every rule, authority and power.

25 For he must reign and put all enemies under his feet.

26 The last enemy to be destroyed will be death.

27 As Scripture says: God has subjected everything under his feet.
When we say that everything is put under his feet, we exclude, of course, the Father who subjects everything to him.

28 When the Father has subjected everything to him, the Son will place himself under the One who subjected everything to him. From then on, God will be all in all.

29 Tell me: what are these people doing who are baptized on behalf of the dead? If the dead cannot be raised, why do they want to be baptized for the dead?

30 As for us, why do we constantly risk our life? For death is my daily companion.

31 I say that, brothers and sisters, before you who are my pride in Christ Jesus our Lord.

32 Was it for human interest that I fought in Ephesus like a lion tamer? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we shall die!

33 Do not be deceived; bad theories corrupt good morals. Wake up, and do not sin,
34 because some of you are outstandingly ignorant about God; I say this to your shame.


The body after the Resurrection

35 Some of you will ask: How will the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they come?

36 You fools! What you sow cannot sprout un less it dies.

37 And what you sow is not the body of the future plant but a bare grain of wheat or any other seed,

38 and God will give the appropriate body, as he gives to each seed its own body.

39 Now look: not all flesh is the same; one is the flesh of human beings; another the flesh of animals, and still others the flesh of birds and of fish.

40 There are, likewise, heavenly bodies and earth ly bodies, but the earthly bodies do not shine as do the heavenly ones.

41 The brightness of the sun differs from the brightness of the moon and the stars, and the stars differ from one an other in brightness.

42 It is the same with the resurrection of the dead. The body is sown in decomposition; it will be raised never more to die.

43 It is sown in humiliation, and it will be raised for Glory. It is buried in weakness, but the resurrection shall be with power. When buried it is a natural body, but it will be raised as a spiritual body.

44 For there shall be a spiritual body as there is at present a living body.

45 Scripture says that Adam, the first man, became a living being; but the last Adam has become a life-giving spirit.

46 The spirit does not appear first, but the natural life, and afterwards comes the spirit.

47 The first man comes from the earth and is earthly, while the second one comes from heaven.

48 As it was with the earthly one, so is it with the earthly people. As it is with Christ, so with the heavenly.

49 This is why, after bearing the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.


The day of Resurrection

50 This I say, brothers: Flesh and blood cannot share the kingdom of God; nothing of us that is to decay can reach imperishable life.

51 So I want to teach you this mystery: although not all of us will die, all of us have to be transformed,

52 in an instant, at the sound of the trumpet. You have heard of the last trumpet; then in the twinkling of an eye, the dead will be raised imperishable, while we shall be trans formed.

53 For it is necessary that our mortal and perishable being put on the life that knows neither death nor decay.

54 When our perishable being puts on imperishable life, when our mortal being puts on immortality, the word of Scripture will be fulfilled: Death has been swallowed up by victory.

55 Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?

56 Sin is the sting of death to kill, and the Law is what gives force to sin.

57 But give thanks to God who gives us the victory through Christ Jesus, our Lord.

58 So then, my dear brothers and sisters, be steadfast and do not be moved. Improve constantly in the work of the Lord, knowing that with him your labor is not without fruit.

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Comments 1 Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 15

• 15.1 Have we here the response to a last question of the Corinthians? Many Greeks thought that at death the immortal soul leaves the body and remains alone. Was it admitted to the paradise of souls? Did it come to the great reservoir of souls already gone or who were to return, forgetting all the past lived on earth? Others held (as do a good number of Christians today), that all ends with death: see 1Thes 5:13. Paul will therefore remind the Corinthians that faith in the resurrection is at the heart of the Christian message.

I remind you of the gospel. Here certainly we may speak of Good News, for death as something unknown is and always has been the great burden of human life (Sir 40:1).

How can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? (v. 12). Paul begins with the resurrection of Jesus as a fact: and from that he then draws consequences: our own resurrection.

We hear it said at times, even among believers that the resurrection of Jesus is not an historical fact. This is true in the sense that resurrection escapes the historical dimension. We know and we believe it because there are witnesses, and in no other way does history proceed. Nevertheless there is a vast difference: history deals with testimonies on which we have some ideas: a war, a meeting between two people, an invention. On the contrary, for the resurrection of Jesus, the witnesses can only speak of apparitions of Jesus or meetings with him. This experience led them to believe something much greater: Jesus had begun a life about which we have no idea, even sharing the power of God! We, then, in this very special case, shall believe not only what they saw but also what they believe, and that is in no way comparable with historical processes. But all the same, Jesus¡¯ resurrection and coming in glory is a fact (see com. on Mk 16).

I have passed on to you (v. 3). Paul will not recall a tale, or a ¡°myth,¡± these stories full of wisdom that abounded with the Greeks. They bared an order in the world, a meaning of life, but were only stories. Today certain people speak of the resurrection in the same way. They say: ¡°It matters little what took place, the gospels are not directly interested in what happened to Jesus, for them it was important that strange events would give courage to the disciples and the hope of another life.¡± Paul says precisely the contrary: the resurrection of Jesus is a fact.

• 20. Whoever shares the faith of the apostles has accepted resurrection as a fact. Paul immediately goes to the consequences for us: shall we also enter another life?

All die for being Adam¡¯s (v. 22). See the commentary in Rom 5:12concerning Adam and Christ. The myths of various re ligions in the past projected onto some mys terious personage our own condition, but were unable to do more than give a mean ing to life. They could not change it. Faith instead tells us that the Son-of-God-made-human has lived among us and lived for all of us. Let us leave aside our individualistic vision in which each one sees no more than his own destiny: for God the entire venture of creation and salvation is that of Adam, one and multiple at the same time. Jesus who is himself Man has lived it fully for us all.

Then the end will come, when Christ delivers the kingdom to God the Father (v. 24). Here again, let us leave aside simplistic images. Let us remember that there is only one God. Here, the Son is the Word of God made flesh who has taken on his shoulders the whole history of humankind. He who is eternally returning to the Father from whom he is born brings to the eternity of God all creation. There will not be a re-beginning of history. God will be all in all, we will receive God from God and we will have all, finally becoming ourselves. That, surely, surpasses all we could have imagined, but Paul adds: The last enemy to be destroyed will be death (v. 26). John will say the same in Revelation (21:4).

Why do they want to be baptized for the dead? (v. 29). Perhaps some of them were concerned for the fate of their parents who died without knowing the Gospel, and were baptized in their name. Paul does not give his opinion about this practice. He only takes the opportunity to argue in favor of the resurrection.

• 35. How will the dead be raised? With what kind of body will they come? (v. 35). Here indeed is the question we often ask: we would like to imagine, to know what we shall then be. But how can a human being imagine, know, this new world which is even now being prepared: is it not like a child still enclosed in the universe of its mother¡¯s womb, and trying to imagine the world into which it will be projected?

All that Paul can do is to throw light on the mystery by using comparisons.

What you sow is not the body of the future plant (v. 37). Jesus spoke of the grain that is sown (Jn 12:24). With this example he destroyed those primitive ideas that some people still have nowadays: that angels will come to gather the dust of the dead, that corpses will come out of their tombs¡­ In reality, our present body is the grain and the risen body, the spike or ear, will not be the recomposition of the actual body that is put in the earth.

Not all flesh is the same (v. 39). Paul explains that one and the same word can express many different things that have some likeness. For example, the word ¡°light¡± is used to designate the very different ways in which the sun, the moon and stars, each shines with its own special color. During Paul¡¯s time the word ¡°body¡± was used for many things, even to designate the sun and the stars, called ¡°heavenly bodies.¡± So, when it is said that the dead are raised with their own body, this does not mean with the same shape (with arms and legs and hair¡­) or the same life, although it will be the same person.

Just as the ear of wheat comes from a grain of wheat, it will be the same person as before, marked by all that has made him grow (the risen Christ rightly wished to show the marks of his passion on his glorious body). Since no one becomes himself alone, but in union and in relation with others, we shall know in all the fullness of their transfigured persons, those who have helped us most to develop our riches.

For there shall be a spiritual body as there is at present a living body (v. 44). Resur rection comes from what is within, it is like a transfiguration. Each one will have the body he/she deserves; a body that best expresses what he/she has become and what he/she is in God. Could we hope for anything more beautiful than that hope which is beautiful even in its logic? But is it certain? Paul is affirmative with all the boldness of faith. No reasoning can prove faith: only the experience of the working of the Spirit which even now is transfiguring us and will give us day by day, more than an intuition, a certitude of where we are going.

Earthly¡­ heavenly¡­ (vv. 45-49). We all have a double heritage: by nature we are in solidarity with the human race in the person of Adam ¨C man, animal and earthly ¨C but we also belong to this human community which mysteriously forms itself around Christ who is Spirit, source of life and who comes from heaven. Baptism has not made us pass from one to another. Moreover, faithful as we may be, our A dam will continue to grow and in crease in weight, with his weak ness and temptations, but at the same time our inner being will be strengthened, this embryo of a celestial person, waiting for its true birth.

Flesh and blood cannot share the kingdom of God; nothing of us that is to decay can reach imperishable life (v. 50). It is the opposition between what can only rot and decompose, and the definitive, un altered which is proper to the world where God is (Rom 8:21). Life has its logic: persons who have chosen to enjoy the present life hardly believe in that other world.  

Not all of us will die (v. 51). Paul thinks that Christ is to return soon. On this supposition, he says that those who are alive when Christ returns will not have to ¡°travel¡± with him to Heaven (that would be a materialist image), but will be transformed. Resurrection is not simply to live again as happened to Lazarus.