13th July

God gives life to the dead. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. Romans 4, 17 ; 6, 8

Eat and drink, tomorrow we will die

The inhabitants of Benin have a proverb which says: "Every one has his place: the dead in the cemetery and the living at the table". Doubtless they express their materialistic philosophy which is summed up in the following: "Eat and drink, tomorrow we will die. With other words: let us take advantage of life because it is short. Soon we will be with the dead in the cemetery.

The obviousness is: first life, then death. But for the Christian the spiritual order is inverted: first death, then life. "God made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions (Ephesians 2, 5). He himself followed the inverted way of nature. "I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever" (Revelation 1, 18).