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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.
This poem is a meditation on gratitude and divine love, exploring relationship between human activity and God’s continuous care. George Herbert reflects on the gifts of life, sight, and the ability to engage in both labour and leisure, attributing them to God’s love. Yet, the central focus is the greater blessing of spiritual vision, symbolized by sight, which God withheld from himself—we may understand reference to Christ’s sacrifice—so that humanity might see its own paths and be redeemed [ … ]
Being ‘poor in spirit’ means understanding that we have nothing to offer God on our own. It’s like realizing we’re empty inside and need God to fill us with His love and guidance. When we’re humble and admit our weaknesses, God’s kingdom becomes available to us. It’s a kingdom where God’s love, peace, and goodness rule [ … ]
‘Death,’ says His Grace, ‘throws it all apart. For we are not as we should be. Faith requires our adjustment to God’s truth. God’s triumph in a very real sense requires in us the loss of our everything. Which, as with Mary at the other end of Jesus’s life, is God’s truth.’ The Gospel reading is of John 11: 1-45, which is a long passage, and His Grace’s homiletic theme commences in textual wilderness. Our brokenness – in this place – a family home. Our faith, our doubt, our death… The irruption – death, doubt, fear – within our precious scenes and our most intimate places. Our domesticity. His Grace speaks from the chair, as is a bishop’s prerogative, and says: ‘So much is obscure in the Gospels. We’re always reaching through them. We’re never there. Really, we never are. Our knowledge, our understanding, of the Gospels is never complete, and with each reading comes a new revelation. There are always new riches there. Just as there are between all of us, between myself and you. The Gospels are living texts. This is a part of the conversation we have with our own Christianity. It is a part of who we are in our relationship with Jesus. We are in this sense always on the brink. ‘So yes, there is plenty that doesn’t seem to make sense. As one of the order of bishops, we would be lying if we said that weren’t the case. They are not easy texts to encounter, if by that word we may signify something more than a superficial glancing off against, but rather a profound search for the word of God. The Gospels are written by people who had their own ideas, and often didn’t know what had really happened. Luke is quite explicit on this point. His is an investigation, from the explicitly claimed point of view of an historian, rather than that of a first-hand witness, who attempts, so he says, to set out an orderly account, out of the chaos, the sheer muddle, that has been handed down to him. It is possible to imagine Luke researching and composing his account after many years, when there has arisen a desire to know what exactly happened, and this implies a certain call to faith and certain demands of historicity, to historical exactitude. So in these different ways, the people of the first years of Christian faith are in the dark. There is also a decisive need to define the life of Jesus. And people didn’t get Jesus. The whole meaning of Christianity is only now beginning to take root throughout the composition. So much needs to be evangelized. The light shines almost in tentative fashion like that first star, which drew the wise men from the east to our Lord’s cradle. ‘John’s is widely held to be a very late Gospel. There are others who say that John’s Gospel might have been the first to acquire its true shape, because it most fully expresses Jesus, as we know him to be, as members of the Catholic Church. We don’t really know when any of this is being written, but we get a feel in John of a Gospel refined over many years, through a community. So there’s a lot going on there that I’d like you to think about. ‘What I would like to suggest to you is that, while within the Gospels we are often confronted with clues, guesswork, stories that have been handed down through so many people, and so in this sense we might find ourselves to be in the wilderness, this is the very desolate space itself to which we must give ourselves in order to experience Christ’s full redemption in our lives. I suggest it is for God’s glory that we do so. ‘As we become aware of ourselves, in this seminary, we find ourselves in a very secure, comfortable setting, and there are signs of Easter everywhere. Within the very fabric of these buildings, our Lord is risen; our Lord lives. But now this is our Lenten journey, where death enters, where death breaks us. We are to ride into Jerusalem in triumph, and then we are to be utterly broken, all hope gone, our hope extinguished. And really, I suggest to you, it is only by inhabiting this thought, as if we don’t know Easter is there, that our new life can follow, just when we have given up all hope, when every promise that Jesus made to us seems to have been cancelled. ‘And here now we have the story of Lazarus. I should like to suggest to you that we have a very powerful call now. In our very comfortable space, our domesticity, with all this comfort, where so very little might seem to happen each day, so it might seem to you, there is a disturbance within all of this comfort, and that is a disturbance within ourselves, and that is our call to Jesus. I think it is correct to say that our most comfortable places break in the light of Jesus from the inside, in order that we may take the necessary steps to be with Jesus. ‘Faith is not comfortable. I think that we can all receive the message of the rolling away of the rock from the tomb of Lazarus to say something of vital importance to ourselves concerning our openness to God’s love. The rock we roll away can come in all sorts of guises, but we know when we are blocked, and I firmly believe if we are truthful then we know where those blocks might be. ‘Next Sunday, which will be Palm Sunday, we process as it were to Jerusalem, to begin our Holy Week. Now as I speak to you we are on the brink. Even now, I suggest it might be very good for all of us to lay aside what we think we know, to fall apart a little, and so […]
