Things Are Not Falling Apart, They Are Falling Into Place!

Book excerpt: "If Christ has not been raised, Then our proclamation has been in vain And your faith has been in vain." (1 Co 15: 14) But Christ is risen and our Faith is not in vain. It is a beautiful Faith, full of mystery and miracles and truth. Unfortunately, we do not have the written words of Jesus of Nazareth for our guidance, but we do have the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And we do have the Letters of St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles. We are also fortunate to have the very words of the great St. Augustine, written in Latin, found neatly stored in his personal library after his death in 430 A.D. He left us with these famous words, the opening line of his "Confessions": "Our hearts are restless, Until they rest in you." "Cor inquietum, Donec requiescat in te." This book, written in 2002 during the War on Terrorism, reflects on the fact that we all must die. But it contends that a Christian dies differently than others: he dies with the knowledge that Christ is risen from the dead, and with the hope of his own resurrection into glory. He dies with the words of St. Paul, whispering in his ears like a childhood prayer: "Awake, O Sleeper Rise up from the dead And Christ will shine on you". (Ep 4: 14)