April 8, 2009

The Resurrection: the dawn of hope

By Roxanne King

Easter, the chief feast in the liturgical calendars of all Christian churches, commemorates Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, which the “Catechism of the Catholic Church” calls “the crowning truth of our faith in Christ.”

It is that upon which all Christianity rests. The faith and hope Christ’s resurrection ignited in the first Christians is what it brings to us today and explains why Christianity has endured for 2,000 years.

Essence of the Gospel
“For I handed on to you as of first importance what I also received,” writes St. Paul, “that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; that he was buried; that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures” (I Cor 15:3).

Capturing the essence of the Gospel, that early credo remains part of the Apostles Creed today as we proclaim: “He was crucified, died and was buried … on the third day he rose again.”

Christ’s resurrection radically changed the lives of the first Christians, said Father Jorge Rodriguez, vice rector of St. John Vianney Theological Seminary.

“It transformed their lifestyle,” he said, “the meaning of their lives was now to bear witness to this truth. It transformed their very selves—they became courageous apostles.”

Sign of divinity
The Catechism explains that Christ’s resurrection fulfilled the promises of the Old Testament and proved his divinity (Nos. 652-653).

“The Resurrection of the Lord is the definitive sign of credibility of Jesus’ divinity and the certifying sign of God the Father upon Jesus’ mission,” said Father Rodriguez. “As he is God all his promises and words are trustworthy and our faith is sure.

“Jesus is the revelation of the Father, the invisible God nobody has seen,” he continued. “He needed to be identified as God to fulfill his mission—our salvation. As our Savior, only an incarnate God would have been able to operate our salvation, to restore what was destroyed by our sins; to reconcile God and man. In the resurrection of Jesus we profess the ‘crowning truth of our faith’ in him: Jesus Christ is the savior of mankind by his death and resurrection.”

Liberation from sin, new life
“By his death, Christ liberates us from sin,” notes the Catechism, “by his resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life” (654).

The Church teaches that the power of the Holy Spirit that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power, the same grace we receive in our baptism, through which Christ restores to us the grace that had been lost through Adam’s fall.

St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans says: “Through one person, sin entered the world and through sin death, and thus death came to all … . For just as through the disobedience of one person the many were made sinners, so through the obedience of one the many will be made righteous” (Rom 5:12, 19).

Later, St. Paul adds: “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life. For if we have grown into union with him through a death like his, we shall also be united with him in the resurrection” (Rom 6:3-5).

Christ’s death justified us, explains the Catechism. He paid the debt for our sins, which we could never pay, and restored us in God’s grace. Christ restored to us what Adam and Eve had lost through disobedience.

Lamb of God and Eucharist
As Christians, we believe that Jesus’ Passion is the fulfillment of the Jewish Passover ritual, wherein the Hebrews recall the night they were set free from slavery in Egypt and were protected from the angel of death by putting the blood of a lamb on their doorposts (Ex 11-12). A thousand years later, Jesus, as the sinless Lamb of God, conquered death and sin. The Passover event of Exodus, therefore, foreshadows Christ’s death on the cross.

Jesus emphasized this when he began his Passion by celebrating the Passover with his disciples and transforming it into the Eucharist.

“Jesus links faith in the resurrection to his own person,” notes the Catechism (994), “‘I am the Resurrection and the life,’ (Jn11:25). It is Jesus himself who on the last day will raise up those who have believed in him, who have eaten his body and drunk his blood.”

“Because Jesus has risen in the flesh, we have the ability to have a personal relationship with him, which is at once ecclesial and eucharistic,” explained Anthony Lilles, professor of spiritual theology and academic dean at St. John Vianney Theological Seminary. “This is a beautiful starting point for the spiritual life, because the spiritual life isn’t a private affair. Rather, the spiritual life is a reality of communion with my brothers and sisters in Christ and with the Holy Trinity through the flesh of Christ.”

Our resurrection
We end the Apostle’s Creed with the words: “I believe in the resurrection of the body and life everlasting. Amen.” The Catechism explains: “We firmly believe, and hence we hope that, just as Christ is truly risen from the dead and lives forever, so after death the righteous will live forever with the risen Christ and he will raise them up on the last day” (989).

“Christ is love, he died for us,” said Father Rodriguez. “Christ’s resurrection makes man free; it gives sense to suffering and death; it is a new Creation already present; it gives hope and certainty: there is an eternal life for me. Man is called, too, to rise from the dead.”