On this beautiful memorial of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, a Conventual Franciscan saint, very popular for his levitations during Mass and during specific episodes in his wonderful life of following Christ, the risen Lord, who keeps his word, who told us that he would suffer and die, but that on the third day he would rise again. In Corinth, in Greece, debate was rampant. They loved to debate philosophical issues of life and death, and one of them was life after death. What happens to the soul? But then what happens to the body? And so one of the hot issues in Christianity was the resurrection of the body at the end of time.
And so this was debated in Corinth, and it even entered into the mindset of some of the early Christians, the converts that Saint Paul had made there. And so they begin to actually wonder what this rising from the dead could mean, and if it is actually possible, and some even began to doubt.
And Saint Paul was shocked about this, because he himself had a first-hand experience and encounter with a man who had been crucified, and whom he saw alive and well before him.
So, Saint Paul begins his message today to the Corinthians in this way: “Brothers and sisters: If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty too is our preaching; empty, too, your faith” (1 Corinthians 15:12-14).
So, my brothers and sisters, here we see that Saint Paul allows absolutely no reduction of Christianity to simply good teaching or moral living. Everything hinges, stands or falls with the Resurrection. If Christ remained dead, preaching is empty and faith has lost its foundation.
Saint Paul goes on to reason with the debaters: “Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins” (1 Corinthians 15:15-17).
One of the questions we can ask ourselves, my brothers and sisters, is: Do I live in a way that reflects Jesus, who is not merely a beautiful memory, the teacher beyond all teachers, recorded for us in the writings of the New Testament, foreshadowed, prefigured, prophesied in the Old Testament, but living with me now every day?
How does his risen presence affect the way I look at the world, the way I treat others, the way I go about? Because to remain in the company of Jesus will transform our lives. As we know, my brothers and sisters, the more time we spend with him, the more we begin to change our outlook, our disposition. The Holy Spirit manifests within us a great joy.
And so we have a beautiful Gospel today where we hear that “Jesus journeyed from one town and village to another, preaching and proclaiming the good news of the Kingdom of God” (Luke 8:1). So we see that Jesus was continually on the move because the Kingdom needed to be proclaimed.
And what happened? People began to join him, but he also chose certain people to accompany him on this great mission.
And so we hear in the Gospel today that accompanying him were “the Twelve, and some women who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out, Joanna, the wife of Herod's steward, Chuza, Susanna, and many others who provided for them out of their resources” (Luke 8:1-3).
So here Saint Luke is giving these women an extraordinary dignity. They are named as members of the company accompanying Jesus and actively supporting his mission.
My brothers and sisters, Saint Joseph of Cupertino as well accompanied the Lord and allowed the Lord to accompany him. And in so doing, his life was full. His life was beautiful. His life took on a different meaning.
He was born in 1603, and he struggled greatly with studies and with ordinary practical tasks. After difficulties entering religious life, he was eventually received by the Conventual Franciscans and ordained a priest in 1628.
So we have this image of a simple man, but we know, as Jesus says and thanks the Father, “Father, I thank you for having revealed these things to the simple and the lowly, and have hidden them from the great and the proud.”
And so Saint Joseph was particularly chosen by God due to his simplicity. And then he became famous for extraordinary ecstasies and reported levitations during prayer. Tradition records numerous incidents during the Mass, incidents which were investigated during the process leading eventually to his canonization.
But the danger here is that we remember the flying friar and miss the saint. Joseph's holiness was not that his body sometimes rose from the ground; it was that his heart belonged to heaven.
This connects beautifully with Saint Paul: “If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Corinthians 15:19). If for this life only. In other words, we're always looking forward to an eternity that God has prepared for us.
Saint Joseph lived as someone for whom the invisible world was profoundly real, yet his mystical gifts brought him difficulties rather than celebrity. Because crowds gathered around him, he was investigated and repeatedly moved. Nevertheless, accounts of his life emphasize his humility, patience, and obedience.
My brothers and sisters, let us ask the Lord to give us the grace to hold firm to our conviction that Jesus is risen from the dead, to grow in this conviction by actually uniting ourselves to Jesus, day after day, prayer after prayer, one good deed after another, through his grace, through his mercy.
So that we too, like Saint Joseph of Cupertino, may live and die for him. “If we live, we live to the Lord; if we die, we die to the Lord” (Romans 14:8).
May your life be kept in the safe hands of our loving Saviour. Through the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary, and that of Saint Joseph of Cupertino, may Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Go in peace, thanking and praising the Lord.
Add comment
Comments