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Saint Paul is the first author in the New Testament to write about death.
As he says in our first reading, “We do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, about those who have fallen asleep” (1 Thessalonians 4:13).
This is key.
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Paul says death is like falling asleep, meaning you and I will enter into a state in which we can be re-awakened. Think of death as like taking a nap.
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Doesn’t God teach us about the truth of the resurrection each and every night? What was the last thing you did last night?
You fell asleep.
And the first thing you did this morning?
You got up. You resurrected.
God has written the pattern of death and resurrection into our daily lives! We rest, we rise…we rest, we rise… we die, we resurrect.
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If you’re thirty years old, then it’s a pattern you’ve practiced some 10,950 times.
If you’re forty, then you’ve done it some 14,600 times.
Fifty? 18, 250 times.
Sixty? 21,900 times.
And so on.
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We shouldn’t be afraid, then, because God has the last word in our lives.
Saint Paul tells us that word will be: Rise.