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From: 1 Corinthians 15:54b-57

The manner of the resurrection of the dead

[54b] [When] the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying
that is written:
“Death is swallowed up in victory.”
[55] “O death, where is thy victory?
O death, where is thy sting?”
[56] The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. [57] But thanks
be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

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Commentary:

54-58. The chapter ends with the words of joy and thanksgiving to God for the tre-
mendous benefits bought by the death and resurrection of our Lord, benefits which
result from his victory over those enemies which had made man their slave – sin,
death and the devil. Jesus Christ, by dying on the cross – offering himself to God
the Father in atonement for all the offences of mankind – has conquered sin and
the devil, who attained power through sin. And his victory was completed by his
resurrection, which routed death. This has made it possible for his elect to be
raised in glory, and is the cause of their resurrection. “In Christ”, Bl. John Paul
II explains, “justice is done to sin at the price of his sacrifice, of his obedience
‘even to death’ (Phil 2:8). He who was without sin, ‘God made him to be sin for
our sake’ (2 Cor 5:21). Justice is also brought to bear upon death, which from the
beginning of man’s history has been allied to sin. Death has justice done to it at
the price of the death of the one who was without sin and who alone was able –
by means of his own death – to inflict death upon death (cf. 1 Cor 15:54f) […]. In
this way the cross, the Cross of Christ, in fact, makes us understand the deepest
roots of evil, which are fixed in sin and death; thus the Cross becomes an escha-
tological sign. Only in the eschatological fulfillment and definitive renewal of the
world will love conquer, in all the elect, the deepest sources of evil, bringing as its
fully mature fruit the kingdom of life and holiness and glorious immortality.

The foundation of this eschatological fulfillment is already contained in the Cross
of Christ and in his death. The fact that Christ ‘was raised the third day’ (1 Cor 15:
4) constitutes the final sign of the messianic mission, a sign that perfects the en-
tire revelation of merciful love in a world that is subject to evil. At the same time it
constitutes the sign that foretells ‘a new heaven and a new earth’ (Rev 21:1) when
God ‘will wipe away every tear from their eyes and death shall be no more, neither
shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain any more, for the former things have
passed away’ (Rev 21:4)” (”Dives in misericordia”, 8).

56-57 The Apostle here provides a summary of his teaching on the connections
between death, sin and the Mosaic Law, a teaching which is given in a much
more elaborate form in chaps 5-7 of his Letter to the Romans. Sin is the sting
of death in the sense that death entered the world through sin (cf. Rom 5:12) to
do harm to men. Sin, in its turn, grew as a result of and was reinforced by the
Mosaic Law: the Law did not induce people to sin but it was the occasion of in-
crease in sin in the sense that made it plainer where good lay and yet did not
provide the grace to enable man to avoid sin (cf. “Commentary on 1 Cor, ad
loc.”).

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Source: “The Navarre Bible: Text and Commentaries”. Biblical text from the
Revised Standard Version and New Vulgate. Commentaries by members of
the Faculty of Theology, University of Navarre, Spain.

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.

From: Luke 11:27-28

Responding to the Word of God

[27] As He (Jesus) said this, a woman in the crowd raised her voice and said to
Him, “Blessed is the womb that bore You, and the breasts that You sucked!”
[28] But He said, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep
it!”

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Commentary:

27-28. These words proclaim and praise the Blessed Virgin’s basic attitude of
soul. As the Second Vatican Council explains: “In the course of her Son’s prea-
ching she [Mary] received the words whereby, in extolling a Kingdom beyond the
concerns and ties of flesh and blood, He declared blessed those who heard and
kept the word of God (cf. Mark 3:35; Luke 11:27-28) as she was faithfully doing
(cf. Luke 2:19-51)” (”Lumen Gentium”, 58). Therefore, by replying in this way
Jesus is not rejecting the warm praise this good lady renders His Mother; He ac-
cepts it and goes further, explaining that Mary is blessed particularly because
she has been good and faithful in putting the word of God into practice. “It was a
complement to His Mother on her “fiat”, ‘be it done’ (Luke 1:38). She lived it sin-
cerely, unstintingly, fulfilling its every consequence, but never amid fanfare, rather
in the hidden and silent sacrifice of each day” (St. J. Escriva, “Christ Is Passing
By”, 177). See the note on Luke 1:34-38.

[Note on Luke 1:34-38 states:

34-38. Commenting on this passage Bl. John Paul II said: “’Virgo fidelis’, the faith-
ful virgin. What does this faithfulness of Mary mean? What are the dimensions of
this faithfulness? The first dimension is called search. Mary was faithful first of
all when she began, lovingly, to seek the deep sense of God’s plan in her and for
the world. ‘Quomodo fiet?’ How shall this be?, she asked the Angel of the An-
nunciation [...].”

“The second dimension of faithfulness is called reception, acceptance. The ‘quo-
modo fiet?’ is changed, on Mary’s lips, to a ‘fiat’: Let it be done, I am ready, I ac-
cept. This is the crucial moment of faithfulness, the moment in which man per-
ceives that he will never completely understand the ‘how’: that there are in God’s
plan more areas of mystery than of clarity; that is, however he may try, he will
never succeed in understanding it completely [...].”

“The third dimension of faithfulness is consistency to live in accordance with what
one believes; to adapt one’s own life to the object of one’s adherence. To accept
misunderstanding, persecutions, rather than a break between what one practises
and what one believes: this is consistency [...].”

“But all faithfulness must pass the most exacting test, that of duration. Therefore,
the fourth dimension of faithfulness is constancy. It is easy to be consistent for
a day or two. It is difficult and important to be consistent for one’s whole life. It is
easy to be consistent in the hour of enthusiasm, it is difficult to be so in the hour
of tribulation. And only a consistency that lasts throughout the whole life can be
called faithfulness. Mary’s ‘fiat’ in the Annunciation finds its fullness in the silent
‘fiat’ that she repeats at the foot of the Cross” (”Homily in Mexico City Cathedral”,
26 January 1979).]

Published by Four Courts Press, Kill Lane, Blackrock, Co. Dublin, Ireland, and
by Scepter Publishers in the United States.