Homily for 8th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Homily for the
8th Sunday of Ordinary Time

Feb. 27, 2022
1 Cor 15: 54-58
St. Joseph Church, New Rochelle, N.Y.

“When this which is corruptible clothes itself with incorruptibility and this which is mortal clothes itself with immortality, then the word that is written shall come about:  ‘Death is swallowed up in victory” (1 Cor 15: 54).

The Resurrection of the Body by Luca Signorelli

(Chapel of St. Brice, Cathedral of Orvieto)

That which is corruptible, that which is mortal, is our human body.  In ch. 15 of 1 Corinthians, Paul has been instructing the Christians of Corinth about the resurrection of the dead.  Today’s our 4th straight Sunday hearing parts of that chapter.  Last week Paul spoke of Jesus as the new Adam who restores humanity to the heavenly life that the 1st Adam forfeited for all of us by sin (15:45-49).

“The sting of death is sin,” Paul writes (15:56).  Sin is like a scorpion or viper; it stings or bites, and the poison gets into your system with bodily consequences.  A scorpion or viper may kill you.  Sin certainly kills; it certainly brings death to all of Adam’s children.

Of death’s certainty we’ll all be graphically reminded on Wednesday if we come to church to receive ashes.  “Remember, mortal man, that you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”  In Gen 2:7 we read, “The Lord God formed man out of the clay of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life.”  Made of clay, without the breath of God (the Holy Spirit) lost by sin, back to clay we crumble.

Ash Wednesday, then, is a sobering reminder, a reminder for all of us to sober up in the face of death’s inevitability, and with death divine judgment of our lives:  of our sins and virtues, of our rejection of the gift of God’s grace offered us by Jesus Christ or our acceptance of the gift.

Quoting the prophet Hosea (13:14), Paul writes, “Death is swallowed up in victory” (15:54).  Our Lord Jesus rose from his tomb on the 3d day after his crucifixion.  He whom the tomb swallowed conquered the tomb and left it empty except for his burial cloths (John 20:5-6).  Jesus removed death’s fatal sting; he swallowed death, and as the new Adam needed no burial shroud; he was clothed with immortality.

“Thanks be to God who gives us the victory thru our Lord Jesus Christ” (15:57).  Our Lord Jesus Christ became man in order to share his divine life with us:  to breathe into our dusty form the breath of immortal life.  He became the new, life-giving Adam, a new father of the human race.  He offers us heavenly life thru the forgiveness of our sins.

During Lent, which we’ll enter on Wednesday, we’ll remember our sinfulness, the sting that brings death, the poison that courses thru our spiritual veins, and be invited to repent.  Is it the poison of passing judgment on our neighbor, of gossip, of laziness at work, of using pornography, of excessive drinking, of wasteful spending of money, of carelessness in the use of natural resources, of sexual misbehavior?  Lent invites us to repent, to renew our commitment to Christ and the divine life he desires to share with us.  His victory over the grave is promised to us, too.

Jesus says in today’s gospel, “When fully trained, every disciple will be like his teacher” (Luke 6:40).  In boot camp, soldiers, sailors, and Marines are trained to be like their teachers and become capable of defending our country.  In Star Wars, Luke Skywalker trained under Yoda to become a Jedi knight and defend the republic against the empire.  If we strive to accept the training of Jesus our master, we’ll be transformed into children of God, Jesus will bring us to same heavenly life that he already enjoys.