Saturday in the 24th Week of Ordinary Time, September 17, 2022

1 Corinthians 15, 35-37; 42-49

Brothers and sisters: Someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?”  You fool! What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be but a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind. So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious. It is sown weak; it is raised powerful. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual one. So, too, it is written, “The first man, Adam, became a living being,” the last Adam a life-giving spirit. But the spiritual was not first; rather the natural and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven. As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly. Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.

Chapter 15 ought to be read in its entirety for St. Paul’s listing of the appearances of Jesus after the Resurrection, some of which are not related in the Gospels, and because of his discussion of the resurrection of the dead, body and soul, at the end of the world.  For the Greek Corinthians, the doctrine of the resurrection had come as a truly new idea, and years after being introduced to it, they still had questions.  

The First Reading for today’s Mass starts rather abruptly so that what Paul says does not make sense.  Through the earlier part of the chapter he was dealing with doubts some had regarding the resurrection, and that Christ himself had not risen from the dead.  At the top of this reading, he quotes one such doubter: the question Paul relates is not asked in good faith but is meant to tear holes in the teaching.  Paul, frustrated, replies, “You fool!”  The person asking the question was trying to get Paul to admit that the bodies that will rise at the end of the world will be decayed and loathsome.  But Paul answers quite elegantly with a simile involving the sowing of seed: “It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.”  That is, the dead body is buried and becomes corrupted, after the manner of nature.  But just as a seed sprouts and new, vibrant life pushes out of the ground, so the resurrected body will be new — in fact, “incorruptible”, for it will never again die.  He calls this resurrected body “glorious” and “spiritual”, for it will share some of the characteristics of the glorified Body of Jesus Christ after he rose from the dead.  Our resurrected bodies will also be able to pass through solid matter, and will be able to move from one place to another with ease, even over great distances.  Our bodies will no longer need food, drink, rest, or sleep.

“The first man was from the earth, earthly; the second man, from heaven.”  Paul now tries to show the logic of what he is proposing.  He speaks of Adam, the man created from the dust of the earth, and then of Jesus, “the second Adam”.  It is right to call the Lord by this name for in him mankind is transformed and made new, and because Jesus is the first-born of the dead (cf. Colossians 1, 18), whose Body is now wholly spiritualized.  He is the new man, whose spiritual descendants we are.  “As was the earthly one, so also are the earthly, and as is the heavenly one, so also are the heavenly.”  Paul describes here the immense difference between the believer and the unbeliever.  The person regenerated in baptism is very different from the one who is not, appearances notwithstanding.  The seed of eternal life has already sprouted in the believer, while the unbeliever has corruption for his heritage.  “Just as we have borne the image of the earthly one, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly one.”  Though we are born in original sin we are filled with grace through baptism, and the life in Christ that begins here reaches perfection in heaven.  

From the beginning, the Greeks struggled with the doctrine of the resurrection.  We recall how Paul addressed the crowd at the acropolis in Athens and did quite well up until he mentioned how Jesus rose from the dead: “When they had heard of the resurrection of the dead, some indeed mocked. But others said: We will hear you again concerning this matter” (Acts 17, 32).  How differently we would live if there were no resurrection or if we had never heard of it.  With this in mind, let us live fully aware of the teaching and of what will one day come to pass.