“ROSE from the dead, he ASCENDED into heaven and he is SEATED at the right hand of God”?
These words of the Creed signify the triumph of Christ over death. And when we profess our faith in the resurrection, we proclaim that Christ is alive, that he has returned to his due glory at the side of God the Father. Saint Paul, around the year 56, wrote to the Corinthians: "For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve."(1 Cor 15, 3-5).
For this reason, when we remember our deceased loved ones, we do not think of them simply placed in a tomb, but resurrected, like Christ, in the Glory of God the Father.
The writings of the New Testament provide us with valuable testimonies from those who witnessed the Resurrection of Jesus. This is how the Catechism of the Catholic Church explains it in number 654: “There is a double aspect in the paschal mystery: by his death he frees us from sin, by his Resurrection he opens us access to a new life. This is, in the first place, the justification that restores us to the grace of God (cf. Rom 4:25) so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead [...] so we too may live one new life "(Rm 6, 4).”
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