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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time A - The Resurrection

In the Creed we state, ‘I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come’. Yes, we hope and take comfort that our departed loved ones are in heaven, but this is not our final reality. At our personal judgement, the quality of our ‘faith, hope and love’ on earth will already have demonstrated whether we have chosen heaven or hell. Purple, then, is the ordinary colour for a Requiem Mass, reminding us of its penitential character; the funeral is not a ‘canonisation’, but a liturgy that, as a charitable act, compels us to pray for the repose of the soul of our loved ones, that they complete their purification, and so rest in peace.

As a person is a unity of body and soul, our redemption is not complete until we get our bodies back, and so, the culmination of our faith is the resurrection of the dead on the last day and life everlasting in the ‘new heaven and new earth’ to come. As Christians, we believe that when Jesus comes again, all humanity will experience the resurrection, both the just and the unjust will rise and receive the ‘Last Judgement’, as a confirmation of our personal one. This is the warning of Mt 25:31-46 (c.f. Christ the King, Year A) which shows us that ‘faith alone’ is insufficient for salvation but that it must be lived out, with the ‘corporal & spiritual works of mercy’ an example of our faith in action, the truth of our relationship with Christ laid bare.

As we pray for the coming of the Kingdom in its fulness, we long to experience a renewal of the whole universe, a time when God will live with his people so we may see him face to face and be like him for all the ages. This is the definitive realisation of God's plan to bring all things together under Christ, all things in heaven and things on earth.