Christ is raised from the dead and will never die again

The Easter Vigil takes the place of the Office of Readings. On Easter Sunday those who do not participate in the Easter Vigil are invited to read and reflect on passages from four readings. First, from the Book of Exodus (14:15---15:1a) entitled "The Israelites march through the sea on dry ground". Secondly, from the book of the prophet Ezekiel (36:16-28) entitled "I shall pour clean water upon you, and I shall give you a new heart". Thirdly, and our treasure for today, is from the letter of Paul to the Romans (6:3-11) entitled "Christ is raised from the dead and will never die again". The fourth reading is from the holy Gospel according to Matthew (28:1-10) entitled "He has risen from the dead and goes before you to Galilee". Saint Paul was born around 4 BC in the city of Tarsus.  Tarsus was a major city in the province of Celicia, in Asia Minor. Tarsus was known as a place of culture and learning. This region had been made a part of the province of Syria (now in Turkey) which was under Roman rule by the time he was grown. St. Paul was a descendant of the tribe of Benjamin, one of the first 12 tribes of Israel from which the first king of Israel, King Saul, also came. Paul was a Jew, and his Jewish name was Saul.  It wasn't uncommon in those days to have two names. St. Paul's father was a Roman citizen and probably of some means.  (This allowed Saul to claim dual citizenship, both Tarsus and Rome, which was of great help to him in his later life).   Saint Paul's entire life can be explained in terms of one experience—his meeting with Jesus on the road to Damascus. In an instant, he saw that all the zeal of his dynamic personality was being wasted, like the strength of a boxer swinging wildly. Perhaps he had never seen Jesus, who was only a few years older. But he had acquired a zealot's hatred of all Jesus stood for, as he began to harass the Church: "…entering house after house and dragging out men and women, he handed them over for imprisonment". Now he himself was "entered," possessed, all his energy harnessed to one goal—being a slave of Christ in the ministry of reconciliation, an instrument to help others experience the one Savior. Paul's life became a tireless proclaiming and living out of the message of the cross: Christians die baptismally to sin and are buried with Christ; they are dead to all that is sinful and unredeemed in the world. They are made into a new creation, already sharing Christ's victory and someday to rise from the dead like him. Through this risen Christ the Father pours out the Spirit on them, making them completely new. So, Paul's great message to the world is: You are saved entirely by God, not by anything you can do. Saving faith is the gift of total, free, personal and loving commitment to Christ, a commitment that then bears fruit in more "works" than the Law could ever contemplate.  Saint Paul is considered by many to be the second most important person in the history of Christianity, second only to Saint Peter.  And many hold him as important as Saint Peter. Of all the letters of Paul, that to the Christians at Rome has long held pride of place. It is the longest and most systematic unfolding of the apostle's thought, expounding the gospel of God's righteousness that saves all who believe; it reflects a universal outlook, with special implications for Israel's relation to the church. Yet, like all Paul's letters, Romans too arose out of a specific situation, when the apostle wrote from Greece, likely Corinth, between A.D. 56 and 58. The central teaching of the Letter to the Romans by Saint Paul is that salvation comes as a free gift of God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ, not by human works of the Law, and that this saving grace is offered to all people—Jew and Gentile alike. Paul explains that all humanity is in need of redemption because of sin, but through Christ's death and resurrection we are justified, reconciled to God, and given new life in the Holy Spirit. The letter also shows how this new life in Christ transforms believers into a community marked by faith, hope, and love lived out in practical holiness.