The meaning and significance of the Resurrection

Christ’s Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside of the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as a 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 foretold (Luke 22:312-32).

The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized (“looking sad” Luke 24:17, John 20:19) and frightened — For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an “idle tale,” Luke 24:11; Mark 28:19). When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, “he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of hear t, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Christ’s risen humanity is revealed by the means of touch and sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his passion (Luke 24:30; 39:40; 41-43; John 20:20, 21:9, 13-13).

Christ’s Resurrection was not a return to earthly life, as was the case with the raisings of the dead that he performed before Easter. 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 of his glorious state, so that St. Paul can say that Christ is “the man of heaven.” (1Corinthians15:35-50).

Christ’s Resurrection is an object of faith in that it is a transcendent inter vention of God himself in creation and histor y. In it the three divine persons who act together as one, and manifest their own proper characteristics. The Father’s power “raised up” Christ his Son and by doing so perfectly introduced his Son’s humanity, including his body, into the Trinity. Jesus is conclusively revealed as the “Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his Resurrection from the dead.

(Romans 1:3-4; Acts 2:24).

If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain. (1 Corinthians 15:14). The Resurrection above all constitutes the confirmation of all Christ’s works and teachings. All truths, even those most inaccessible to human reason, find their justification if Christ by his Resurrection has given the definitive proof of his divine authority, which he promised. Christ’s Resurrection is the fulfillment of the promises of the Old Testament and Jesus himself during his earthly life. (Matthew 28:6; Mark 16:7; Luke 24:6-78).

The Paschal myster y 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 glor y of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4; 4:25).

Finally, Christ’s Resurrection — and the risen Christ himself — is the principle and source of our future resurrection: “Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep; for as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1Corinthians 15:20-22). The risen Christ lives in the hear ts of all his faithful while they await that fulfillment. In Christ, Christians “have tasted… the powers of the age to come” (Hebrews 6:5) and their lives are swept up by Christ into the hear t of divine life, so that they may “live no longer for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised.” (2 Corinthians 5:15; Colossians3:1-3).

Blessed are we who are “witnesses of these things,” who have been given “minds to understand the Scriptures” and mouths to “preach in his name to all the nations.” “Christ is Risen, Christ has truly Risen, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia!