the resurrection - 24th week thursday 2014

For the Romans the last is not the least but the most important.  We have come to the last topic of Paul in his letter to the Corinthians and he placed it last because it was the most important.  The question about the resurrection is placed before him.  The Corinthians had a hard time believing that the dead will rise again.  Not just because it is absurd by also because not everyone is sure that they would want to rise again in their bodies.  For the Corinthians matter is evil.  It is the source of so much suffering and should therefore be discarded.

So Paul started defending the resurrection of all by presenting to them the resurrection of Jesus.  He narrated to them how he was seen by the apostles and by more than 500 men most of whom are still alive to tell the tale.  And lastly he was seen in the flesh by Paul, he saw Jesus, the resurrected Jesus.  It was not hallucination or imagination or ecstatic vision but he saw, as they saw, as I see you now.

In narrating this apparition Paul expressed his unworthiness saying, For I am the least of the Apostles, not fit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.  But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me has not been ineffective.  Indeed, I have toiled harder than all of them; not I, however, but the grace of God that is with me.

Neither the grace of God alone, nor he alone that made him do even bigger things than the original apostles.   It was God’s grace that made him do those things and yet it is not only God’s grace but also him.  Neither the grace of God alone, nor he alone; it was God’s grace and yet it was not only God’s grace.  

I want you always to be humble and it comes from the consciousness that it’s you but it’s not only you, it is the grace of God but it is also you.  When you do your practices these coming day be conscious of this so that in your practice you will not forget to pray because it’s you but it’s not only your; it is the grace of God but it is also you.