Easter Sunday 12.4.20 Certainty
This is our greatest feast and the greatest event in human
history – at least along with the Incarnation and the Crucifixion.
The Resurrection is of massive importance to us. If we read
the signs right we have great hope of victory during this life, and the promise
of eternal happiness in the next.
We live in a world where there is a great deal of misery; and
there always has been, ever since the first sin.
And each of us carries the crosses of daily life. We feel
the pressure of adversity, disappointment, tragedy - really sapping our
strength, eating away at our sense of wellbeing.
So it often happens that from a position of extreme
difficulty we proclaim that we believe in the Resurrection of the Lord. We might
believe it in our heads, but do not always register it in our emotions. We have
much to be happy about, but somehow we do not always connect with it.
Yet that head knowledge is not to be dismissed, because there
we find objective reality.
Objective reality is where a thing exists independently of
whether we know it, believe it, or feel it.
The Resurrection is one such reality. We know it to be true,
and what a truth it is.
Our Lord rose from the tomb on Sunday morning, so soon after
dying.
No one saw Him rise, but they saw Him risen. This is the
proof of the objective reality.
The event cannot lose its reality. People may fall away from
the belief, or refuse to embrace it, but it remains as real as ever.
Our hope rests in this objectivity. It has a solid
foundation. This is the Good News, and the best part of that News is the Resurrection.
Our Lord rose in His human nature. He was bringing humanity
through to the other side of the grave.
A lot of things flow from that.
The objective stabilises the subjective. We have a strong
foundation from which we can confidently negotiate all the twists and turns we
encounter.
We feel our mortality, our vulnerability. The more we draw
upon Our Lord the more we see His Resurrection as our own. We go with Him to
Heaven.
We become one with Him through faith and baptism; then
sustain that union through the Sacraments and holy living (aided by
repentance). To this extent we are already risen:
‘So if you have
been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is,
seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above,
not on things that are on earth, for you have died, and your life is
hidden with Christ in God.’ (Col 3,1-3)
On this logic Easter Sunday is our resurrection too, at
least partially. What we do not have yet is coming, and you can bet the house
on that.
Our Lord is assuring us that we will rise with Him. We will
be raised again, not just a resuscitation to the present life, but something
much fuller and richer.
There will no more death or sickness or pain. Every tear
will be wiped away (Rev 21,4).
And this is just the physical dimension.
Better still is that we are being transformed spiritually,
to be Christ-like in all things.
While we are still slogging it out, we could say that our
hope also is being raised; our hope which is not just optimism but a certainty
based on very solid foundations.
Happy Easter! – means more than have a nice two or three
days. It means: enjoy the happiness that flows from Our Lord’s complete triumph
over sin and death.
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