And I shall raise him (on) the last day

2 NOVEMBER (Jn 6,37-40)

Belief in the resurrection is a truth acquired in the Old Testament. This faith was the strength of the martyrs, of the witnesses of fidelity to God and his holy Law.
When the first brother had died in this manner, they brought the second to be made sport of. After tearing off the skin and hair of his head, they asked him, “Will you eat the pork rather than have your body tortured limb by limb?” Answering in the language of his forefathers, he said, “Never!” So he too in turn suffered the same tortures as the first. At the point of death he said: “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever. It is for his laws that we are dying.” After him the third suffered their cruel sport. He put out his tongue at once when told to do so, and bravely held out his hands, as he spoke these noble words: “It was from Heaven that I received these; for the sake of his laws I disdain them; from him I hope to receive them again.” Even the king and his attendants marveled at the young man’s courage, because he regarded his sufferings as nothing. After he had died, they tortured and maltreated the fourth brother in the same way. When he was near death, he said, “It is my choice to die at the hands of men with the God-given hope of being restored to life by him; but for you, there will be no resurrection to life.”
Most admirable and worthy of everlasting remembrance was the mother, who saw her seven sons perish in a single day, yet bore it courageously because of her hope in the Lord. Filled with a noble spirit that stirred her womanly heart with manly courage, she exhorted each of them in the language of their forefathers with these words: “I do not know how you came into existence in my womb; it was not I who gave you the breath of life, nor was it I who set in order the elements of which each of you is composed. Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man’s beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law.”
Martyrdom of Mother and Sons Antiochus, suspecting insult in her words, thought he was being ridiculed. As the youngest brother was still alive, the king appealed to him, not with mere words, but with promises on oath, to make him rich and happy if he would abandon his ancestral customs: he would make him his Friend and entrust him with high office. When the youth paid no attention to him at all, the king appealed to the mother, urging her to advise her boy to save his life. After he had urged her for a long time, she went through the motions of persuading her son. In derision of the cruel tyrant, she leaned over close to her son and said in their native language: “Son, have pity on me, who carried you in my womb for nine months, nursed you for three years, brought you up, educated and supported you to your present age. I beg you, child, to look at the heavens and the earth and see all that is in them; then you will know that God did not make them out of existing things; and in the same way the human race came into existence. Do not be afraid of this executioner, but be worthy of your brothers and accept death, so that in the time of mercy I may receive you again with them.” (2Mc 7,7-29
This ancient faith is infinitely surpassed in the New Testament. It is no longer a matter of witnessing to the sanctity of the Law and also giving life for it. Jesus asks us to live as risen already today, and on earth. That is why he gives us the gift of his eternal, divine life, sharing in his divine nature, and communion with his own mystery.

Everything that the Father gives me will come to me, and I will not reject anyone who comes to me, because I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of the one who sent me. And this is the will of the one who sent me, that I should not lose anything of what he gave me, but that I should raise it (on) the last day. For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I shall raise him (on) the last day.”

There is no longer a jump from earth to Heaven, from time to eternity. Today, what is happening is just the opposite. There is a leap from eternity to time, from Heaven to earth, from God to man; since God today wants to live with the fullness of his life in the heart of a man and manifest the whole world the creative power that acts with strength in the heart that abandons itself to him, because it hands itself entirely to the voice of Jesus. Without faith in the son, man remains in his nature of impure mud. Never might he raise to a divine, spiritual, redeemed, sanctified, regenerated and elevated nature. Faith in Christ Jesus is what makes the difference between a man of mud and a man of spirit.
Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels, Saints give us true faith in Jesus.