As Christians, we belong to a holy family. God is our Father and loves and protects us a father protects his children. The Church is our mother, who raises us and teaches and cares for us as a mother does her children. Jesus is like us in all things but sin. He is our Brother, the first of a risen humanity. And all of the other members of the Church are our brothers and sisters in Christ. God loves us so much that He sent His only Son into the world to show us His love, to teach us about Him and how to be in relationship with Him, and to die for our sins. And on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead. As St. Paul describes the Resurrection, Jesus is the “firstfruits” of a new humanity, the first in a human race free from death and sin. In Christ, raised up and guided by His Church, and loved by the Father, we too can be free from death and sin. This is the gift of salvation.

St. Paul is a great example of how we experience God’s love for us in the Church and are “raised” by our Father (God) and mother (the Church) with Jesus as our model to follow. Paul received His faith from Jesus Himself, but that faith was nurtured through the Church (the other Apostles). And then, he followed in the footsteps of Christ to proclaim the Gospel. And St. Paul further explains a theology of the Resurrection in which Jesus was the first to be raised. At the end of time, we too will share in the resurrection when our bodies are raised and our souls are reunited with them to live with God for eternity in the New Heavens and the New Earth. This may sound incredible—and it is! We profess our belief in the resurrection of the body every time we say the Creed during Mass:

I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. I confess one Baptism for the forgiveness of sins and I look forward to the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. 

Amen.