CHRIST OUR HOPE
The Importance of the Resurrection for Christian Faith
We are an Easter people. We are people of “the eighth day,” the day of the new creation, the day of the Lord’s Resurrection from the dead. The Resurrection stands as the great hope of the People of God of the New Covenant, the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ. Through His glorious Resurrection, Our Lord Jesus Christ has conquered sin and death forever. We are no longer a people in darkness, no longer a people in captivity, in exile away from the light of God’s face. In and through Christ, a light has shone upon us, a light of hope. As Isaiah the prophet proclaims, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; upon those who dwelt in the land of gloom a light has shone” (Isaiah 9:1). The in-breaking of the Resurrection of Christ in our present world signals the coming of a new era, an era of light and renewal, an era of hope for a life transformed beyond the power of sin and death. The Risen Christ is our hope, a hope that the present world and this present life is not all there is, but that life, a new and better life, exists beyond the grave: the life of the resurrection of the dead, a life radiant with divine light. The Lord Jesus Christ raised from the dead represents the hope in our hearts that those who have died in a state of friendship with God might share in the glory of eternal life in the Kingdom of God. We make this prayer our own in “Eucharistic Prayer III” at the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass: “Welcome into Your kingdom our departed brothers and sisters, and all who have left this world in Your friendship. We hope to enjoy for ever the vision of Your glory, through Christ our Lord, from whom all good things come.” The Lord’s death and resurrection has opened up for us the way back to God the Father, the Lord our Creator from Whom we came and to Whom we are now able to return, by virtue of the passion, death, and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord’s death achieved for us the forgiveness of sins. His resurrection achieved for us our entrance in to our heavenly homeland.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) tells us, “The Paschal mystery has two aspects: by his death, Christ liberates us from sin; by his Resurrection, he opens for us the way to a new life. This new life is above all justification that reinstates us in God's grace, "so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life." Justification consists in both victory over the death caused by sin and a new participation in grace. It brings about filial adoption so that men become Christ's brethren, as Jesus himself called his disciples after his Resurrection: "Go and tell my brethren." We are brethren not by nature, but by the gift of grace, because that adoptive filiation gains us a real share in the life of the only Son, which was fully revealed in his Resurrection” (CCC, no. 654; see also CCC nos. 638-655 and 988-1014 for references and further explication). At the Incarnation, Christ “entered into” humanity by taking humanity to Himself, that is, by taking on a human nature as the Word made flesh. At the Resurrection, He transformed humanity through the transformation of the human nature He assumed. The flesh is no longer bound by sin to be a slave to sin, but is now transformed by the redeeming power of Christ, who enabled humanity to live now in the grace of the redemption.
By the power of His resurrection from the dead, human life is changed and transformed for the better, for the glory of God. Saint Irenaeus, writing in the 2nd century, tells us, “The glory of God is man fully alive.” In Christ’s resurrection, we see “man fully alive,” to the greater glory of God. In Christ’s resurrection, we see humanity transformed, perhaps even “re-created” to truly become “the image and likeness of God” (cf. Gen. 1:26), re-capturing for us what we lost through sin and thus reclaiming our original dignity as sons and daughters of the Most High God. Saint Paul tells us, “For the love of Christ impels us, once we have come to the conviction that one died for all; therefore, all have died. He indeed died for all, so that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. Consequently, from now on we regard no one according to the flesh; even if we once knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him so no longer. So whoever is in Christ is a new creation: the old things have passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor. 5:14-17). Indeed, the old things HAVE passed away, and, indeed, new things HAVE come. This is our Christian hope, that the passion, death, and resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ are not simply doctrinal affirmations of faith, but that they truly change us, that they truly have an impact on how we live, that they mold us and shape us into the people we are becoming: the People of God, the Body of Christ, the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, a people destined for salvation.
We can very clear see the dangers associated with the denial of the resurrection of Christ. Saint Paul tells us quite plainly, “But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, whom he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Cor. 15:12-19). This is the very thing we see happening today: all kinds of people are describing the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead as something relegated to the tales of mythology, as the product of a group of people trying to cope with the death of their leader, as a fanciful fairy tale, but certainly not as literally true. We are told that we are foolish for professing faith in the resurrection of Christ; that we need to get in step with the times; that we need to let go of our clinging to a dead past. In truth, nothing could be farther from the truth. The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead has changed the whole world, brought about redemption and enabled mankind to enter into the divine life of the Most Holy Trinity by calling for our own participation in the mystery of Christ, the “paschal mystery.” If we do not profess faith in this, can we profess faith in anything? Indeed, it is impossible to call oneself a Christian and not believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: the resurrection is at the heart of Christian faith and hope.
If, then, we possess this radical hope in the Risen Christ, we must not keep this hope to ourselves: the Lord Jesus calls us out of ourselves and forward into mission, into ministry, into evangelization. In Matthew’s Gospel, we are told: “Then Jesus approached and said to them, ‘All power in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age’" (Matt 28:18-20). In this brief passage, we are told to 1) Go, 2) make disciples of all nations (a very CATHOLIC mission!), 3) baptize them in the name of the Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and 4) commend them to observe the commandments of Christ. And lastly, it is Christ’s promise, “And behold, I am with you always, until the end of the age,” that makes our Christian mission possible, insofar as it is Christ who works in and through the members of His Body, the Church (through the indwelling of sacramental grace), to make possible the Church’s missionary activity.
In Mark’s Gospel, our mission is similar: “He said to them, ‘Go into the whole world and proclaim the gospel to every creature. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; whoever does not believe will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons, they will speak new languages. They will pick up serpents (with their hands), and if they drink any deadly thing, it will not harm them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover’" (Mark 16:15-18). Signs and wonders accompany the Church on mission; we see these signs in the lives of the Saints, the greatest heralds of God’s reign and all of His mighty deeds. The heart of the message is the Gospel, and the salvation that comes with or is made possible with Baptism. We are a Church which makes converts, which wants people to come to hear the good news that Jesus Christ is Lord, and that He died to grant to us the forgiveness of our sins, and was raised up again so that we might live in new life. This is at the heart of our Christian lives; it is for this reason that we cannot keep Christ our Hope to ourselves, and why we must share Him, God’s Son and the author of our salvation, with the world. His resurrection has changed the whole world; as His faithful people, He asks us to do no less, like His Saints, through our witness to Him and His saving power. To Jesus Christ be all glory, honor and power, for ever and ever, amen, alleluia!
~ Noah J.