EASTER: (ACTS 10:34, 37-43; or Col 3:1-4 or 1 Cor 5: 6b-8; Jn 20:1-9 (41); Mt 28:1-10) 

The Catholic Archbishop of Hartford, John Whealon, (d. August 2, 1991), had undergone cancer surgery resulting in a permanent colostomy when he wrote these very personal words in one of his last Easter messages: “I am now a member of an association of people who have been wounded by cancer.  That association has as its symbol the Phoenix, a bird of Egyptian mythology. The Greek poet Hesiod, who lived eight centuries before Jesus was born, wrote about this legendary bird in his poetry.  When the bird felt its death was near (every 500 to 1,461 years), it would fly off to Phoenicia, build a nest of aromatic wood and set itself on fire.  When the bird was consumed by the flames, a new Phoenix sprang forth from the ashes.

 “Thus, the Phoenix symbolizes immortality, resurrection, and life after death.  It sums up the Easter message perfectly.  Jesus gave up His life, and from the grave He was raised to Life again on the third day.  New life rises from the ashes of death. 

Today, we are celebrating Christ’s victory over the grave, the gift of eternal life for all who believe in Jesus.  That is why the Phoenix was one of the earliest symbols of the Risen Christ.  The Phoenix also symbolizes our daily rising to new life.  Every day, like the Phoenix, we rise from the ashes of sin and guilt and are refreshed and renewed by our living Lord and Savior with His forgiveness and the assurance that He still loves us and will continue to give us the strength we need.” 

  Archbishop John Whealon could have lived in a gloomy tomb of self-pity, hopeless defeat, and chronic sadness, but his Faith in the Risen Lord opened his eyes to new visions of life that he was moved to share with all his priests before he went Home to God.

Easter is the greatest and the most important feast in the Church. It marks the birthday of our eternal hope. “Easter” literally means “the feast of fresh flowers.”  We celebrate it with pride and jubilation for three reasons:

1.The Resurrection of Christ is the basis of our Christian Faith, for it proves that Jesus is God.  That is why St. Paul writes: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain; and your Faith is in vain…  And if Christ has not been raised, then your Faith is a delusion, and you are still lost in your sins…  But in fact, Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep” (I Cor 15:14, 17, 20).

2.Easter is the guarantee of our own resurrection.  Jesus assured Martha at the tomb of Lazarus: “I am the Resurrection and the Life; whoever believes in Me will live even though he die” (Jn 11:25-26).  

3) Easter is a feast which gives us hope and encouragement in this world of pain, sorrows, fears, and tears.  Easter reminds us that life is worth living.  It is our belief in the Real Presence of the Risen Jesus — in our souls, in His Church, in the Blessed Sacrament, and in Heaven — that gives meaning to our personal as well as to our common prayers.  

 

Can Christ's resurrection be defined as a historical event, in the common sense of the term; that is, did it "really happen"? There are two facts that offer themselves for the historian's consideration and permit him to speak of the Resurrection: First, the sudden and inexplicable faith of the disciples, a faith so tenacious as to withstand even the trial of martyrdom; second, the explanation of this faith that has been left by those who had it, that is, the disciples. In the decisive moment, when Jesus was captured and executed, the disciples did not entertain any thoughts about the resurrection. They fled and took Jesus' case to be closed.

 

   In the meantime, something had to intervene that in a short time not only provoked a radical change of their state of soul, but that led them to an entirely different activity and to the founding of the Church. This "something" is the historical nucleus of Easter faith. The oldest testimony to the Resurrection is Paul's: "For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: That Christ died for our sins, according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again according to the Scriptures; and that he was seen by Cephas, and after that by the eleven. Then he was seen by more than 500 brethren at once, of whom many are still with us and some are fallen asleep. After that, he was seen by James, then by all the apostles. And last of all, he was seen also by me, as by one born out of due time" (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).

 

The resurrection of Jesus is not about resuscitation, like that of Lazarus or two other people Jesus raised back to life. The appearances of Jesus testify to a new dimension of the Risen Christ, his mode of being "according to the Spirit," which is new and different with respect to his previous mode of existing, "according to the flesh." For example, he cannot be recognized by whoever sees him, but only by those to whom he gives the ability to know him. His corporeality is different from what it was before. It is free from physical laws: It enters and exits through closed doors; it appears and disappears.

 

  According to a different explanation of the Resurrection, one advanced by Rudolf Bultmann and still proposed today, what we have here are psychogenetic visions, that is, subjective phenomena similar to hallucinations. But this, if it were true, would constitute in the end a greater miracle than the one that such explanations wish to deny. It supposes that in fact different people, in different situations and locations, had the same impression, the same hallucination. 

  The disciples could not have deceived themselves: They were specific people -- fishermen -- not at all given to visions. They did not believe the first ones; Jesus almost has to overpower their resistance: "O foolish men, and slow of heart to believe!" They could not even want to deceive others. All of their interests opposed this; they would have been the first to feel themselves deceived by Jesus. If he were not risen, to what purpose would it have been to face persecution and death for him? What material benefit would they have drawn from it?

 So, if the Resurrection did not objectively happen, then something else has to explain why the Church began and why the disciples became so convinced. Hence, the alternative explanation is more puzzling than the Resurrection itself.

It is not enough to examine the Resurrection of Jesus historically. It is necessary to see the Risen Christ, and this is something history cannot do; only faith can.

Hence, the ancient theological dictum, based in Isaiah 7:9, ‘unless you believe, you will not understand.’ Faith leads to understanding and understanding strengthens faith, said St. Anslem.

So, let us heed the words of the angel today: "Why do you waste time seeking among dead human and historical arguments, the one who is alive and at work in the Church and in the world? Go instead and tell his brothers that he is risen."