And yet the Requiem Mass for a priest contains the cry of St. Paul: "O death where is thy victory? O death where is Thy sting", as if to stir us from our sorrow and remind us that death is but one half of the Christian paradox: for because of the victory of the cross, death has been transformed into the very gateway to life. This same cross is understood by so few that St. Paul says it is "unto the Jews a stumbling block and unto the Gentiles foolishness." (1Cor 1:23)
The Gentiles whom St. Paul was working to convert understood that man had a natural desire within himself to live forever. But without the true faith, they thought this could only be achieved through great deeds which would live on in the minds of generations of men forever in works such as those of Homer and late Plutarch.
