1 Thess 4:13-18 / Luke 4:16-30
Life and death may sound like opposites. But there is also a ironic connection between life and death.
That connection is put into quotes like: If you don't live for something, you will die for nothing.
So as much as the finality of life ends with death, yet life without a purpose is also a life that is meaningless. In that sense death has already taken place.
With that we may understand what St Paul said in the 1st reading: We want you to be quite certain about those who have died, to make sure that you do not grieve about them, like the other people who have no hope.
He was referring to those who have come to believe in Jesus during their lifetime and have died.
It was because of their faith that they had the hope that death would be the passage to the glory that Jesus had promised them in the afterlife.
And Jesus Himself, in the gospel, had this great vision to live for as He proclaimed that passage from the prophet Isaiah.
It was really something to look forward to, something great to live for and Jesus knew that He was the one who is to bring and as well as to be the Good News to the poor.
So the rejection from the people of His home-town was not going to deter Him nor was He going to let them end His life just like that.
Jesus had something great to live for, and in the end He had something even greater to die for.
He died in order to save us so that in turn we can bring the Good News to others and even be the Good News for others. That is really something to live for. To wait further is to let death push us down the cliff.