Perhaps this metaphor of the "seed" will help to explain this concept a bit more clearly.

Whent he seed dies, it is not raised again as a seed, but as an entirely new plant. This is what Jesus is talking about when he compares the growth of faith, or the Church, to the mustard seed. It is the smallest of seeds, yet the plant that it produces is astonishing, and very large. Even today we cannot explain fully why the seed becomes the plant (except in the most rudimentary terms).

Jesus is trying to tell us about something that is literally, incomprehensible in this lifetime. Our finite brains cannot get around all that He is saying. Yet, by His own death and resurrection, we have a foretaste of the things to come, and what it will be like to be raised again from the dead.

Matthew 13:31-32 (Also Mark 4:31-32, Luke 13:19-20) He told them another parable: "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his field. Though it is the smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it is the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and perch in its branches."

The seed in itself is almost nothing. But when it dies, and is planted in the ground, then it grows into the thing it was always meant to be, and its beauty, power and strength is there for all to see.

Perhaps in rereading these parables and stories, it will be easier for you to understand how Jesus tells us about the resurrection and the life in the world to come.

I hope that helps Le pede.

Peace,

Nomad