Dear Brothers and Sisters,

We often hear the term things being a “full circle”; something that has a beginning and an end. In a sense churches can feel like this where people can be baptised, married, and be buried, place where things come “full circle”.

But in Sunday's reading from the letter of St Paul we hear, “We believe that Jesus died and rose again” and that it will be the same for those who have died in Christ, namely us, who have already symbolically died in Christ through our baptism. This is a staggering claim now as it was then; what is the basis for the claim? How can we be confident that it applies to us?

The author, St Paul, had undergone a radical conversion from a persecutor of the early Christians, imprisoning them and being present at least one martyrdom, to being a Christian himself. 

This was based on a personal encounter with Jesus Christ, a man who to that point Paul genuinely believed to be dead and the claims of Jesus’ resurrection to be a complete fiction. This led him to meet others, we are told elsewhere hundreds of others, who had met Jesus after He had, body and soul, risen from the dead. 

Paul’s letters show us that he was a clever man with a sophisticated education, a man not easily taken in by fraud. He knew that his claims of Jesus’ resurrection, and consequently the promise of our own, were extraordinary and would be hard for others to believe too, so he writes this letter in which he tries to describe how we will, like Jesus, rise again. Will be the same but different, perfected. Elsewhere he says this because when people encountered the risen Jesus He was the same person as before His death. After his resurrection Jesus went to great lengths to show people that he was real and not a ghost, and one of the first things he asks for is something to eat, but He is also different in some way, in some beautiful and glorious way.

Yes, this is a comforting thought but it is much more than that. Paul and his fellow Christians had a direct encounter with Jesus. They could not keep it to themselves, they knew that it put them at risk of persecution and death, but they had to do it. Who would live and die for something based on a lie? 

So what is the path to the glory of eternal life in Christ? In this life it is not easy but in the gospels Jesus gives us a series of road maps. We see in them the characteristics of what it is to share the life of Christ in our lives here, today. Gentleness; the desire for what is right in the world; being merciful; being peace makers in our homes and the places where we live. Sacrificing ourselves for the good of others (something we particularly bring into our minds this Remembrance Sunday).

If we want to see how to actually do this we only need to look at the life of Jesus, though it proved to be for Him the way to the cross, He rose again in glory and is alive forever and He tells us in the gospels, as Paul does in his letters, that we can be there with him too. Jesus never loses anyone who are His and who desire to be with Him. All we need to do is stay close to Jesus. Even at those times in our lives when we are far away from Him there is, this side of eternity, always a back.

Way before the time of Jesus people believed that God cares for people beyond this life, that the souls of the virtuous are in the hands of God. God desires all people to be saved and to be in eternal union with Him, sharing the life of the Holy Trinity. Beyond our time here, if we do our best to be faithful, God our loving Father will bring us to Himself, as He has brought countless others. In the Christian belief we believe that the destination in following the path of Jesus is to be united with Him and to be reunited with each other. God Himself, in the act of a loving father, will personally wipe away our tears and bring us to everlasting joy with Him and with each other. He will destroy death, forever.

But as we are told in Sunday's gospel, we need to stay awake, to be aware of the limits of our earthly life. We do not know the time our the hour when God will invite us to return to Him and if we will be able to accept the invitation. But for the dead who are with God, rather than things having come “full circle” for them their circle is the circle of eternity; eternal life in God. 

As always, please accept an assurance of my daily prayers for your needs and intentions. 

God bless and keep you.

Fr Chris