shall rise out of the earth: and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh I shall see my God.” God has revealed it. This alone, my dear brethren, should suffice to make us believe in the resurrection from the dead.
Many Christians do not believe in the resurrection. But where am I? What sort of hearers are present? Am I amongst heathens and idolaters, who do not believe in the resurrection, that I have taken so much trouble to convince them of the truth of this mystery? Have I not on another occasion shown that Jesus Christ really rose from the dead; and must I now go to such lengths to show that all men shall rise again from their graves on the last day? Are we not all good Christians here? Why then have I wasted so much precious time, that might have been better employed for the good of souls in treating of some more practical subject? There is none of us here who doubts of this truth, or has ever doubted it; why then go so far to prove it? Ah, would to God that your complaint were justified; that I were wrong in this matter; that we were all in truth faithful Christians, who show in our lives what we profess with the lips, that, namely, we shall one day rise again body and soul! But how do the lives of many harmonize with this doctrine?
Explained by and example.
The holy apostle of the Indies, St. Francis Xavier, once came into a certain town of India, where there were some Christian merchants who had come from Europe to trade. He began to preach to the heathens about Jesus the Crucified, His death, resurrection, ascent into heaven, His holy law, His promises, the rewards He holds out to those who keep His law, and the eternal life that is to be their lot. What do you think that Xavier effected by his preaching? Xavier, that great apostle whose words had already converted cities, islands, kingdoms to the Catholic faith? Nothing at all, as he sorrowfully admits in his letter to Europe. Why? What was the stone that blocked his path? Alas that I have to say it! It was the Christians; the Christians, and no others! If none of them had come to the place the heathens would have been converted. The God of whom you are preaching to us (so they said to Xavier) cannot be so holy, so just in chastising, so generous in rewarding, so faithful to His promises as you say; the law He has left, the religion He has founded, cannot be so perfect as you pretend; and it would be useless for you to try to change our opinion in this respect, because it is justified by the lives of the Christians who