Saturday, November 20 : Saint Pacian of Barcelona

We die no more. For even if we are dissolved in this earthly life, we will live in Christ, as he himself has assured us: “Whoever believes in me, even if he die, shall live” (Jn 11:25). In a word, we are assured, on God’s word, that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and all the saints of God live. For God says concerning them: “Now he is not the God of the dead, but the living, for all live to him”. And the apostle Paul says of himself: “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain. I desire to depart and to be with Christ” (Phil 1:21-23)… This, dearly beloved, is the burden of our faith: “If with this life only in view we have had hope in Christ, we are of all men the most to be pitied” (1 Cor 15:19). Earthly life, as you yourselves see, for beasts, domestic animals, and the birds of the air is of the same span or longer than ours. What is special to man is what Christ has given him through his Spirit—that is, life everlasting, on condition, however, that we sin no more. For just as death is the penalty of sin and virtue the way to avoid it, so life is conserved by virtue and lost by vice. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is life everlasting in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rm 6:23).

Roman Catholic Ordinary Calendar – rosary,team