Living the Mysteries

As I was listening to the Gospel reading at Mass this morning (Luke 20:27-38) I began to consider how the early Church Fathers would have approached the topic of the resurrection of our bodies as they taught the neophyte, the newly Baptized. When our Lord was, as Scott Hahn puts it, given the riddle of the seven brothers and childless widow Dr. Hahn says "...God's Law wasn't given to ensure the raising up of descendants to earthly fathers. The Law was given, as Jesus explains, to make us worthy to be 'children of God'--sons and daughters born of His Resurrection. "

The following is a sermon by St. Leo the Great called Pilgrims on Earth.

Introduction: St. Leo urges us to see heaven as our true home and to live here as if we were just passing through. These are the marching orders that mystagogy gives us. We are to live in the afterglow of the Ascension and in anticipation of Jesus' coming. We proclaim in every Mass: 'Christ will come again!' and He comes to us again, in every Mass!" (Scott Hahn and Mike Aquilina)

And so, dearly beloved, let's rejoice with spiritual joy, and let's gladly give God the thanks He is due. Let us freely raise the eyes of our hearts to those heights where Christ is. Hearts that have heard the call to be lifted up must not be held down by earthly desires. Those who are made for things eternal must not be occupied with the things that perish. Those who have begun the way of truth must not become entangled in the snares of falsehood. The faithful must make their way through these temporal things, keeping in mind that they are pilgrims in the valley of the world; and, even though they find some attraction along the way, they must not sinfully embrace them. but bravely pass them by. . .

Let's resist this deadly evil and 'aim at charity' (see 1 Cor 14:1, CCD). . . By this path of love, Christ came down to us; by it, we too, may ascend to Him. And to Him, with God the Father and the Holy Spirit, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Living the Mysteries
by Scott Hahn and Mike Aquilina

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And so it is that we, too, must travel the road of the neophyte. For which one of us can truly say, "I have nothing more to learn. I have all the insights. I need no more instruction." It certainly is not me. And now I see that my trek "home" is just as our Lord told the Sadducees. "They can no longer die, for they are like angels; and they are the children of God because they are the ones who will rise." (Luke 20:36)

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Thanks be to God! Amen!!