Christ
Has Truly Arisen!
(Easter Sunday Meditation)
The truth that Jesus Christ, our Lord
and Savior, was raised up by the Holy Spirit of God the Father is supported by
biblical foundation.
The four Books of the Gospel report
the great event of the Lord’s Resurrection as the ever essential ground for
Christian faith which in turn is the basis of moral principles and values
consistently and proudly observed by the Christian Community for the past
twenty centuries.
In fact, Christianity is the sole
religion that teaches the truth that not only death is by no means the end of
man’s existence here on earth, but it also assures people of the faith that the
dead will be raised up to a new life that will last for ever.
The belief in the resurrection of the
dead is strongly built on the much more fundamental belief in our Lord’s
resurrection. Christian faith in the
Lord’s resurrection is so important that, had Christ not arisen from death,
Christianity would have been collapsed and that, in the words of Saint Paul,
Christians would have become false witnesses against God Who did not raise
Christ up. Would Christ not have been
raised from the dead, we, believers in Christ’s Resurrection, would have been
most unfortunate in the world for ending up in the slavery to sins and death.
The Gospel stories on the
Resurrection of Christ are of one voice in telling us the truth that our Lord
has really arisen. The first generations
of witnesses to the Lord’s Resurrection focused on these four facts:
-
One, the empty tomb, this means that our Lord was no longer
in the burial place where He was laid to rest.
-
Two, the message of the angel that our Lord was raised from
the dead.
-
Three, the many apparitions of the Risen Lord to the apostles
and other disciples.
-
Four, the radical change of the way of life of those who
believe in the Lord Who died, but Who is now living in the Christian Community,
the Church that He founded, His Mystical Body. Christians were in the darkness
of sin and death but are now in the light of truth and life.
Not only did Christians from the
times of the apostles down to recent days strongly and loudly proclaim with the
words of their mouth the great news of the Lord’s Resurrection but they also
fearlessly do defend their faith in it by shedding their own blood.
All the above-mentioned facts would
not be useful unless we properly understand the true meaning of the
resurrection of the dead in accordance with the teaching of the Catholic
Church.
The Resurrection of Christ our Lord
and Savior and that of the dead on the last day of the world are one doctrine,
or teaching, pertaining to Christian faith that there will be a new life in the
new heaven and new earth. The present
physical conditions of our body are by no way suitable for the new life in the
new heaven and new earth.
There should be, for this reason, an
absolute change, or transformation, of our physical, material and thus mortal,
body into a spiritual and immortal one.
Our present body is limited and
conditioned by time and space. When we
are here and now in this church for our Sunday Holy Mass celebration, we are
limited and conditioned by the law of time and space so we cannot by this same
time be present somewhere else, at our home for instance.
The resurrection stories tell us that
the risen Lord was able to see and talk to many people in different places at
the same period of time.
Our present body cannot enter the
house without first opening the door.
The Risen Lord, in order to visit His friends, who were so afraid of the
Jews, was able to enter the room that was carefully locked.[1]
Our present body cannot survive
without basic needs such as food and drink.
At the resurrection of the dead, we will live as do the angels in God’s
Kingdom.[2]
So, there is an essential difference
between the revival of a person who has seemingly died because of old age, of
sickness, of accident, or just of being suffocated by water or smoke, and the
resurrection of the dead. The difference
is that the revival of a dead person can be performed by medicine doctors and scientists. The resurrection of the dead exclusively and
absolutely belongs to the almighty and all-powerful God alone.[3]
More important is this truth that the
revival of a dead person can by no way assure that person that they will not
die one day. The resurrection of the
dead, on the contrary, surely means that people who enter the new life in the
new heaven and new earth will live forever.
Let us listen to the very words of
Saint Paul on the true meaning of the resurrection of the dead as follows:
It is sown corruptible; it is raised
incorruptible. It is sown dishonorable;
it is raised glorious. It is sown weak;
it is raised powerful. It is sown a
natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.[4]
Fr. Francis Xavier Nguyen Van Nhut, O.P.
