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Thursday of the Twenty-fourth Week in Ordinary Time 1 Corinthians 15:1–11
At the heart of Christianity there is a story.
Not an idea.
Not a system.
Not a moral code.
A story.
Christ died for our sins.
He was buried.
He was raised on the third day.
This is the Gospel Saint Paul received.
This is the Gospel he handed on.
He did not invent it.
He received it from witnesses.
From people who had met the risen Lord.
The women.
Peter.
The Twelve.
The disciples.
James.
More than five hundred brothers.
And finally, Paul himself.
The resurrection of Jesus does not come to us as a theory.
It comes through testimony.
Someone saw.
Someone believed.
Someone was changed.
Someone handed it on.
And then the Gospel reached us.
Paul says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
This means that the cross was not an accident.
It was not only a tragedy.
It was the place where God’s saving love entered human sin, violence, and death.
Christ was buried.
This matters.
His death was real.
His body was placed in a tomb.
The resurrection is not a beautiful symbol.
It is not only a spiritual memory.
The One who died was raised.
Then Paul says:
He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.
Death did not have the final word.
Sin did not have the final word.
The tomb did not have the final word.
God did.
And this Gospel is not only something we hear.
It is something we enter.
In Baptism, we are joined to the death of Christ.
We are buried with Him.
We rise with Him to new life.
That is why Paul can say:
If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.
The Gospel changes life.
It changed Paul.
He had persecuted the Church of God.
He knew his unworthiness.
Yet the risen Christ met him.
Grace found him.
Grace changed him.
Grace made him an apostle.
Paul says:
By the grace of God, I am what I am.
That is also our hope.
We are not saved because we are worthy.
We are saved because Christ died and rose for us.
We believe because witnesses handed on the Gospel.
And now, we are called to become witnesses too.
Christ died.
Christ was buried.
Christ is risen.
This is the Gospel we received.
This is the Gospel we live.
This is the Gospel we hand on.
Biblical Reflections on the Gospel of Matthew
Scripture Attribution
New Revised Standard Version Bible: Catholic Edition,
copyright © 1989, 1993
the Division of Christian Education of the National Council
of the Churches of
Christ in the United States of America.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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© 2025 Krakus.
Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
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