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Office Of Readings | Week 32, Monday, Ordinary Time | From A Treatise On Forgiveness By Saint Fulgentius Of Ruspe, Bishop | He Who Conquers Death Shall Not Be Hurt By The Second Death
‘He who conquers death shall not be heard by the second death.’
Saint Fulgentius reminds us that the great transformation of the resurrection begins now, in the hidden conversion of the heart. The ‘first resurrection’ is not merely an image but a real spiritual event: the passage from sin to grace, from darkness to light, from unbelief to faith. In this life, God works the first change within us — a change that prepares and guarantees the glorious change to come.
Fulgentius insists: no one can hope for the incorruptible body of the last day without first receiving the incorruptible heart God offers today. The resurrection of the body crowns the resurrection of the soul. Grace now begins what glory will complete.
This ‘first resurrection’ is not dramatic or visible, like graves opening and bodies rising; it is quieter, deeper, more interior. It is the daily death of sin and the daily rising of virtue. Whenever a heart turns from evil to good, whenever faith awakens, whenever a person abandons what destroys and embraces what is holy — resurrection has already begun.
And because this first resurrection is the work of grace, the ‘second death’ — the permanent loss of communion with God — cannot touch those who belong to Christ. The fearsome images of Revelation exist not to terrify, but to awaken desire, to spur repentance, to urge every soul toward the life Christ freely offers.
Fulgentius’ teaching invites us to hope, not dread. The Church does not simply wait for the last trumpet; she already hears within herself the faint beginning notes of resurrection. The glory to come is assured to those who let God begin His work in them today.
Let us, then, welcome this first resurrection — the rising of the heart — so that the second death has no claim on us, and the eternal life promised to the just may be ours.
From A Treatise On Forgiveness By Saint Fulgentius Of Ruspe, Bishop | He Who Conquers Death Shall Not Be Hurt By The Second Death
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye as the final trumpet sounds, for the trumpet shall indeed sound, the dead shall rise incorruptible and we shall be changed. In saying ‘we’ Paul is indicating that the gift of that future change will also be given to those who during their time on earth are united to him and his companions by upright lives within the communion of the Church. He hints at the nature of the change when he says: This corruptible body must put on incorruptibility, this mortal body immortality. In order, then, that men may obtain the transformation which is the reward of the just, they must first undergo here on earth a change which is God’s free gift. Those who in this life have been changed from evil to good are promised that future change as a reward.
Through justification and the spiritual resurrection, grace now effects in them an initial change that is God’s gift. Later on, through the bodily resurrection, the transformation of the just will be brought to completion, and they will experience a perfect, abiding, unchangeable glorification. The purpose of this change wrought in them by the gifts of both justification and glorification is that they may abide in an eternal, changeless state of joy.
Here on earth they are changed by the first resurrection, in which they are enlightened and converted, thus passing from death to life, sinfulness to holiness, unbelief to faith, and evil actions to holy life. For this reason the second death has no power over them. It is of such men that the Book of Revelation says: Happy the man who shares in the first resurrection; over such as he the second death has no power. Elsewhere the same book says: He who overcomes shall not be harmed by the second death. As the first resurrection consists of the conversion of the heart, the second death consists of unending torment.
Let everyone, therefore, who does not wish to be condemned to the endless punishment of the second death now hasten to share in the first resurrection. For if any during this life are changed out of fear of God and pass from an evil life to a good one, they pass from death to life and later they shall be transformed from a shameful state to a glorious one.
Christian Prayer With Jesus Christ
Lord Jesus Christ,
You are the Resurrection and the Life.
Awaken within us the first resurrection —
the conversion of heart, the turning from sin,
the rising to faith, hope, and holiness.
Let your grace change us now,
that your glory may transform us then.
Free us from all that leads to death,
and strengthen within us all that belongs to life.
May we live each day
as those who await your coming with joy,
secure in your mercy, confident in your promise,
and eager to be changed into your likeness.
Who live and reign with the Father
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God, forever and ever. Amen.
Glossary Of Christian Terms
First Resurrection – The spiritual resurrection that happens in this life when a person is converted from sin to grace and becomes alive in Christ.
Second Death – The final and eternal separation from God after judgment; the ‘death’ that has no end.
Glorification – The final transformation of the body and soul at the resurrection, making the just incorruptible and radiant in God’s presence.
Justification – God’s free gift that makes a sinner righteous by forgiving sin and giving sanctifying grace.
Resurrection of the Body – The Christian belief that all the dead will rise bodily at the end of time, the just to eternal life and the wicked to judgment.
Conversion – The turning of the heart away from sin and toward God; the beginning of the ‘first resurrection.’
The Last Trumpet – Biblical imagery (1 Cor 15:52) referring to the moment of the final resurrection and judgment.
Eternal Life – Sharing forever in the life of God; the ultimate destiny of those united to Christ.
We process. Glass exhibition cases, old reliquaries. A forearm here; here a nun’s fingertip. In chapel, at a glance, there are the usual faces. But they all stand to attention. Jonathan breaks from the procession to – fire the organ with oomph and dignity: Ride on! ride on in majesty! The angel-squadrons of the sky look down with sad and wondering eyes to see the approaching sacrifice. When we’ve done the readings, the Arch holds that tree in his hands to deliver the homily. He rocks quietly on his feet, some few seconds, as if balance defeated it. A way you might affect as the Spirit moves… Copying. Then he says: ‘Our palm fronds may seem to us today rather dry. I mean this not in a literal sense, but by the standards of those who originally lined the roadways in order to welcome Jesus into Jerusalem, as they proclaimed Jesus to be the Messiah, who would be clambering up and ripping their palm branches fresh from off the trees. I think perhaps also our faith is somewhat distant from that of the people there on that highroad into Jerusalem, and something of our sense of the meaning has shifted in vividness from what it was then. And of course the expectation of all those many people is markedly different, but in many important respects the same. There are the same essential qualities to all our faith in God, which springs complete from our humanity, and that is one and the same in value for all of us, and time is consistent on this point. So then, let us renew the fullness of Catholic faith, and let us ask the Lord’s blessing as we embark upon our Holy Week. ‘Our Lord enters into Jerusalem in order to refresh us. He is to die in order that we may have life. There is a living reality here, both spiritual and as entangled in the joy of our daily living. We have Ladies’ Day where I grew up. They still have it, and they close the roads off, and little children parade, dressed-up like spring brides. When I was a boy, there was a May Day festival, and there was a May pole on the field, with the people dancing, like Morris dancers might be one way of visualizing this if you’ve never seen it, with their ribbons tied onto the top of the May pole, and they would weave around each other, dressing the pole, which is what we called it. It was like a dance with red and white and blue ribbons all hung off of the top of the May pole, which stood there all year, only like a telegraph pole, but it was concreted in, and then there was a slide, and swings – one baby-swing and two you could have a go at – terrible health and safety but that’s what it was in those days. ‘There was a round-a-bout – we used to run it round and round to try to get it off its central axis. It were rusty as anything and creaked like mad – on concrete. And climb up where it was all greased up at the top. Ruth, who was big as the next four of us, used to sit there sucking on the lollipops we nicked for her from Raddies, and she’d direct matters. We were trying to destroy it, and get it to dislodge from its central axis, and fly away – roll off into that farmer’s field, which he only ever kept for silage, but we never succeeded. There was a car someone had left there so we spent forever smashing that up, until someone who lived in one of the houses there took exception to our doing that, so he put thick grease under the door handles and gave us a right talking to. ‘It would only be a few stands, hot-dogs and things like that. The man selling the hot dogs would have his records on full blast. There’d be a couple of set-up stalls. Air-rifles – that sort of thing. But we all had them, and we all went shooting, of course, if not with twelve bores then with smaller gauge. Or pay a pound – I have no idea how much it was in actual fact then – it might have only been a few pennies – and we’d get all that time smashing up the crockery the man would put up for us to smash on the dressers. That was my particular favourite thing to do at these festivals, by the way, in case you were wondering. You got a little bucket of so many cricket balls. ‘I dread to think what went into those hot dogs. Probably EE rules would forbid it now. But it was a fair mix in those days. A lot of young people then were C of E. We’ve done a lot to hang onto our young people, which is a tremendous encouragement when you consider how things are, while in recent decades the Church of England hasn’t been so successful. People still want it on feast days and what are essentially now civic celebrations. It’s strange to see, though, how all the little stands there people have are run by the police and people like that along those lines. There’s no May pole. That was a sort of faith that ran and ran beneath all the theoreticals of it in the 1960s and the 1970s and into the 1980s. The May pole isn’t there now in the particular place I’m thinking of. Considering May poles were officially suppressed hundreds of years ago – as a part of the protestant reformation. One or two of you are probably thinking I’m remembering things from that time! ‘I should have liked to say that those processionals were so hardwired into us, that even after the last thirty years, when I became a bishop, they are still with us. They were […]
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