CatholicTheology.info

Choose a topic from Part 3a:

• The Incarnation
• Our Blessed Lady
• Our Lord Jesus Christ
  • 31. Our Lord's Body
  • 32. The Conception of Christ
  • 33. The Mode of Our Lord's Conception
  • 34. The Perfection of Our Lord Before His Birth
  • 35. The Nativity of Christ
  • 36. The Manifestation of the New-Born Christ
  • 37. Legal Observances Regarding the Christ Child
  • 38. The Baptism of St. John the Baptist
  • 39. The Baptizing of Christ by St. John the Baptist
  • 40. Our Lord's Life
  • 41. The Temptation in the Desert
  • 42. The Preaching of Christ
  • 43. The Miracles of Christ: In General
  • 44. Miracles of Christ: In Particular
  • 45. The Transfiguration
  • 46. The Passion of Christ
  • 47. The Effecting Cause of the Passion
  • 48. The Efficacy of the Passion of Christ
  • 49. Actual Effects of the Passion of Christ
  • 50. The Death of Our Lord
  • 51. The Burial of Our Lord
  • 52. The Descent Into Hell
  • 53. The Resurrection
  • 54. The Risen Christ
  • 55. The Manifestation of the Risen Christ
  • 56. Causal Power of the Resurrection
  • 57. The Ascension
  • 58. Our Lord at the Father's Right Hand
  • 59. Our Lord's Power as Judge
• The Sacraments in General
• Baptism
• Confirmation
• The Holy Eucharist
• Penance

56. Causal Power of the Resurrection

1. Aristotle says (Metaph. iv): "Whatever isthe first in any order, is the cause of what comes after it."The Resurrection of Christ was first in the order of rising fromthe dead: "The first fruits of them that sleep" (I Cor.15:20). Christ's Resurrection is thus the cause of our bodilyresurrection which will take place on the last day.

2. Christ's Resurrection is also the cause of theresurrection of our souls from the death of sin. The divine powerwhich appears in the bodily Resurrection of Christ extends to humansouls. St. Paul (Rom. 4:25) says that our Lord "rose again forour justification." And again he says (Rom. 6:4): "Christis risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also maywalk in newness of life."

"God has no need of men."
St Philip Neri

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"It is vanity to be concerned with the present only and not to make provision for things to come."
Thomas á Kempis

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"Spiritual persons ought to be equally ready to experience sweetness and consolation in the things of God, or to suffer and keep their ground in drynesses of spirit and devotion, and for as long as God pleases, without their making any complaint about it."
St Philip Neri

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