• Each one of us has the experience of attending a funeral. We assist at the Mass for the deceased and pray for his soul. We accompany the body to the cemetery and see the final rites performed over the body. Then we walk away.
• That’s it. Nothing happens after that and we do not expect anything else to happen. We do not expect that the person buried in the ground is going to do anything. None of those who are at the cemetery do anything after they are buried. They do not move or get up. They all just stay in the ground.
• And the same will be true for us one day. We will also die; we will also be taken to the cemetery. We will be put in the ground, the people will walk away, and we will stay in the ground.
• The reason why we will stay in the ground and why everyone who is buried at the cemetery stays in the ground is that we do not have power over life and death.
• We are going to die when our soul will no longer be able to remain with our body and we will not be able to bring life back to our body. Neither will our loved ones. Neither will our friends.
• There is no one in this world that is able to restore life to a dead body. We have all of the body parts that we need. We have all kinds of technology and machines. But we cannot give life.
• In all of our experience, whatever dies remains dead and does not come back to life.

Our Lord is the exception

• The one exception to this, of course, is Our Lord Jesus Christ. Like everyone else, He was buried in a tomb. Like everyone else, those who buried Him walked away after His burial. Like everyone else, they thought that He would remain dead and would not come back to life.
• But that is not what happened. Our Lord did what no one else is capable of doing. He gave life back to Himself, He rose from the dead, and He came out of the tomb.
• How is it possible that He alone, of all the many people who have died in the history of the world, He alone was able to come back from the dead. It is because He is the only one who possesses the power necessary to do it. He alone has power over life and death. He alone is God.

Our Lord promises He will raise us up

• These two facts must be very clear in our mind: a) I am going to die one day and I will have no power to restore life to myself; b) Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only one Who has the power to restore life to someone who is dead.