Happy Easter

Details: 09 April 2010

History and Beyond

Catholic theologians note that “the resurrection of Jesus has two major aspects, the one historical which can, therefore, be studied for the historical value of the narratives contained in the New Testament about the empty tomb and the many apparitions of the risen Lord, and the other spiritual and supernatural, exploring the place the resurrection of Christ, as a saving event carried out by God for the redemption of humanity, occupies in the history of salvation.”

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches that “the mystery of Christ’s resurrection is a real event, with manifestations that were historically verified... (1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Acts of the Apostles 9:3-18; Luke 24:5-6; John 20:13; Matthew 28:11-15). The faith of the first community of believers is based on the witness of concrete men known to the early Christians and for the most part still living among them. Peter and the Twelve are the primary witnesses to His resurrection, but they are not the only ones. Paul speaks clearly of more than five hundred persons to whom Jesus appeared on a single occasion and also of James and of all the Apostles (1 Corinthians 15:4-8; Acts of the Apostles 1:22).”

The Catechism remarks: “Given all these testimonies, Christ’s resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples’ faith was drastically put to the test by the Master’s passion and death on the cross which He had foretold (Luke 22:31-32). When Jesus reveals Himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, ‘He upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart’ because they had not believed those who saw Him after He McCookhad risen (Mark 16:14). Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples were still doubtful. So impossible did the thing seem that they thought they were seeing a ghost (Luke 24:38-41; Matthew 28:17; John 20:24-27). Therefore, the hypothesis that the resurrection was produced by the Apostles’ faith or credulity will not hold up. On the contrary, their faith in the resurrection was born, under the action of divine grace, from their direct experience of the reality of the risen Jesus.”

Very Special

However, as Pope Benedict XVI points out, “We must say that Jesus, after he rose from the dead, did not live like a reanimated corpse, but He lived in virtue of His divine power, beyond the region of what is physically and chemically measurable.” The Catechism says, “Christ’s resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings from the dead that He had performed before Easter: Jairus’ daughter (Mark 5:22-43), the young man of Naim (Luke 7:11-17), and Lazarus (John 11:1-44). These actions were miraculous events, but the persons miraculously raised returned by Jesus’ power to ordinary earthly life. At some particular moment they would die again. Christ’s resurrection is essentially different. In His risen Body He passes from the state of death to another life beyond time and space. At Jesus’ resurrection, His Body is filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. He shares the divine life in His glorious state, so that Saint Paul can say that Christ is the Man of heaven (1 Corinthians 15:35-50).”

“Although the resurrection was an historical event that could be verified by the sign of the empty tomb and by the reality of the Apostles’ encounters with the risen Christ, still it remains at the very heart of the mystery of faith, as something that transcends and surpasses history. This is why the risen Christ does not reveal Himself to the world, but to His disciples, to those who came up with Him from Galilee to Jerusalem and who are now His witnesses to the people (Acts of the Apostles 13:31; John 14:22).”

“Christ’s resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent intervention of God is creation and history.” The resurrection of Jesus was a work of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. He was “raised from the dead” by God the Father at the same time that He “effects His own resurrection by virtue of His divine power (Mark 10:34; John 10:17-18; Romans 1:3-4; Acts of the Apostles 2:24; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Philippians 3:10; Ephesians 1:19-22; Hebrews 7:16).

Meaning

The Easter event has multiple layers of meaning and significance. It constitutes “above all the confirmation of all Christ’s works and teachings, all truths He taught, even those most inaccessible to human reason... It is “the fulfillment of the promises both of the Old Testament and of Jesus Himself made during His earthly life (Luke 24:6-7;Mark 16:7).” It vindicates Christ’s claims of divinity (John 8:28; Acts of the Apostles 13:32-34). It is the source of our own justification and righteousness (Romans 6:4; 1 Peter 1:3; Matthew 28:10; John 20:17). The risen Christ Himself in His glorious and triumphant resurrection also “is the source and principle of our own future resurrection (1 Corinthians 15:20-22; Hebrews 6:5; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Colossians 3:1-3).

Pope Benedict XVI says, “Anyone professing the resurrection of the body is not affirming an absurd miracle but affirming the power of God Who respects His creation without being tied to the law of its death. Indubitably death is the typical form of things in the world as it actually exists. But, the overcoming of death, its real and not simply its conceptual elimination, is still today, as it was then, the object and desire of the human quest.”

Pope’s Words

The Holy Father writes, “The resurrection of Jesus says that this victory (over human death) is in effect possible, that death does not belong principally and irrevocably to the structure of the creature, to matter. Certainly it also says that to overcome the confines of death is not possible definitively by sophisticated clinical methods, through technology. This comes about through the creative power of the Word and of love. Only these powers are sufficiently strong to modify so fundamentally the structure of matter, to make it possible to overcome the barrier of death. God’s power does not end at the confines of matter. It embraces everything. This is what faith in the resurrection is concerned with, the real power of God and the importance of human responsibility. That power of God is hope and joy. This is the liberation revealed at Easter. In the Pasch God reveals Himself, His power, superior to the power of death, the power of the love of the Trinity. So the paschal revelation gives us the right to sing Alleluia in a world overcast with the cloud of death. The Catholic Church communicates the hope that Easter placed in her heart to the world, proclaiming that the resurrection of Christ is our hope and joy, and we wish to share these treasures of ours with all the world.”