Please read the passage before reading the commentary.
You were dead in your transgressions and sins, says St Paul. So was I, and everyone else.
Christ was also dead once, not in his sin for he is sinless, but in his mortal body. God, however, raised Christ from the dead and raised him up to the highest heavens.
People who are dead cannot move themselves. They have to depend on others the carry them out for burial. It is grace, the grace of family and friends, that moves their dead bodies for burial.
When God raised Christ from the dead God also raised us up from the dead and placed us with Christ in glory. It is God’s grace that has given us new life and only God’s grace that has done this.
When Christ took on our human nature, he shared our lives as one of us. In fact, he became one of us, or perhaps better, we became one with him. When Christ took on our human nature, he also shared with us his divine nature. This is so much so that when Christ died, in the way of mystery we all died with him and were buried with him. Then when God raised Christ from the dead and raised him to heaven, God also raised us with him. Because of this St Paul can say that God “raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavens.” It is true that even now we have risen with Christ into heaven, in mystery, which is also in fact.
It is grace, then, our family’s grace that will move our dead bodies to the cemetery. It is grace, God’s grace that moves us our of our death in sin to life with Christ. We have been saved by grace; we could not achieve this on our own.