Welcome to answers from an apostolic faith.
In name the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, One God. Amen.
First, we wish you a blessed feast of the Holy Resurrection, a feast that is very important for us and that has given us the true meaning of real life.
So, when it comes to the cross and the resurrection of Christ, it has been said that these two events are two sides of one coin. What does that mean? It means that since God died in His Humanity, and because He is the source of life, now when He is raised, it happens very naturally, because He is the source of life.
So, His Grace Bishop Raphael has demonstrated this in a very beautiful example. So, he takes a paper and he says this represents the humanity of Christ and he puts the paper in water. Now, the water represents the divinity of Christ. So now, I have one wet paper. I have one incarnate God fully human, fully divine in this paper.
Now, when any human dies, his soul separates from his body. And since Christ died in His humanity, we will separate, here, His soul from His body. So now, let's say this is the soul. This paper is still wet. So, the divinity did not depart from His humanity for a single moment nor a twinkling of an eye, like what we say in the liturgy. So, this soul is human and divine; this body is human and divine. Now, how are they united back together? So, if I try to put them back together, I put them back and I glue them, so to speak, because of the water. So, the divinity of Christ is what allowed Him to be raised back naturally again. So, St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:
'' 20 But now Christ is risen from the dead, and has become the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.'' (1 Corinthians 15:20)
What does this mean? So, the firstfruits are the first batch of fruits that someone grabs or takes or reaps at harvest time or vintage time. So, when someone takes this first batch, he's expecting a second and third and a fourth batch. So, what this verse is saying is that Christ has demonstrated to us the way of salvation and He went through it personally, but He expects other people to follow in that path.
So, like Christ died, He expects me to die to the world. And like He was raised, I also will be raised. I also will conquer sin and overcome the tribulations, because He did. I am walking in His footsteps. But for this to happen, I have to die. I have to fall asleep, like it says in the verse here.
So, the best explanation I have found in nature, personally, is the example of the caterpillar. So, the caterpillar lives a very okay life, like, it eats leaves and walks very slowly. But the caterpillar is smart: it knows that it needs to die to that environment. So, it goes into its cocoon and after a time, it is raised as a glorious butterfly. And now, it becomes a different being completely, meaning it used to eat, now it drinks; it used to walk, now it flies. It becomes glorious and it's so beautiful. It's as if Christ is teaching us: I want you to die to the world; I want you to die to sin, so that you may conquer, that your souls may be lifted up to heaven, that you may live the true life of the resurrection. Like St. Paul says:
'' 17 ...if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation...'' (2 Corinthians 5:17)
I need to become this new creation. I need to take the resurrection of Christ and make it mine. I need to be raised with Him. So, I need to die with Him that I may be raised with Him. So, I become in Him and by His grace, I live a true life of the resurrection.
Remember: Know your faith, live your faith, and teach your faith. And glory be to God forever. Amen.
Note (on screen only)
To live a true life of the resurrection, we regularly need to abide in Christ through partaking of the Eucharist. His Holy Body and Blood will truly transform us into a new creation. Unlike the caterpillar whose body is transformed into a different creature; through abiding in Christ, each human will be raised, in heaven, with his/her own personal body in a glorified state.