Pastor's Letter 20230409 - 09 April 2023 - He is Risen, Indeed!

[Father Michael]

April 9^th, 2023

Easter Sunday

A Message from Father ^†Michael

Today’s Theme:  “He Is Risen, Indeed”

Reflections on Today’s Scripture

(Acts 10:34-43)  The feast of life (Easter) is not simply the  celebration of One Man’s victory—a universal triumph in, and because of, that One Man—but is a grace that gathers all mankind to life.

^†Peter’s apostolic proclamations at Cornelius’ home, as well as others in Acts, are highly stylized, theological vehicles, through which, ^†Luke responded to the pastoral needs of the growing Church community.  (They were intended to reach beyond historical and literary context in order to inform the reader of the meaning of the Resurrection Event.)  Those speeches revealed the method that was developed by the early disciples for proselytizing Gentiles, and recounted Jesus’ life and ministry of healing and good works.  ^†Luke credited the Holy Spirit for the growth and continued development of the Church.

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(Colossians 3:1-4)  Those who share in Jesus’ victory are to live like winners, no longer losing the battle to sin and evil.  They are enabled to bear patiently with reality, rising above the pettiness and deceit one finds in everyday life, because of the new life they enjoy in the Lord.

^†Paul emphasized the fact that without the Resurrection, life “in Christ” would be an absurd impossibility!  It is precisely because of the Resurrection, that Jesus’ victory over sin and death was afforded to all believers.  We are heirs of that victory, or as ^†Paul said, we are “raised up in company with Christ,” calling believers to bear witness to Him by living worthy lives of justice, peace and truth.  Redemption was not an exercise of freeing oneself from the body, or of transcending one’s lesser self by the attainment of secret knowledge, but was God’s gracious gift to a sinful and needy humanity.  We must focus on Christ and the gift of salvation as our first step toward eternal life and glory.

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(John 20:1-9)  Because of Jesus, death has lost is finality and has become a passageway to a new and everlasting life.  Jesus lives!  The mystery of His rising gives meaning to His and our suffering, and sustains the hope of all who believe. 

If anyone truly anticipated Jesus’ Resurrection from the Dead, the Scriptures are silent about their expectations.  Instead, each of the Resurrection narratives contain evidence that Jesus’ followers did not expect Him to rise.  In fact, they seemed to have despaired of Him as the long-awaited Savior.  

However, in the wake of the Resurrection Event, faith developed, because of Jesus’ glorification and the early Church took an entirely different view of Jesus’ death—and subsequently of life—as witnessed in the enlightened perspective of the Gospels, which were written in the aftermath of the Resurrection.  

Easter Hope

In his book On Being a Christian, Hans Kung explains that “Jesus’ Resurrection cannot be described as an historical event in the ordinary sense of the word.”  

As we have come to expect, in modern times, there were no human witnesses; no press passes distributed; nor any cameras to “record the scene” for all posterity.  Rather, as the New Testament consistently attests, the Resurrection of Jesus was an act of God—an integral part of the final transformation [ultimate destiny] of the world.  

Kung goes on to explain that this perspective implies that the Resurrection Event is more than the divine vindication of only one particular Person—Jesus of Nazareth.  God’s saving plan involves our Blessed Lord in such a way that after Easter, Jesus became the norm for human understanding of the relationship between humanity and God.  When the evangelists wrote of Jesus’ Resurrection, they composed their narratives, replete with joy and hope spawned by this realization.

The known world, outside Jerusalem, didn’t take much notice of the Resurrection of Jesus, because it was a humble, hidden event, that occurred in relative obscurity.  The Resurrected Jesus did not appear triumphant in the Temple of Jerusalem, humiliating those who humiliated Him.  Rather, only those whom He called by name; with whom He broke bread; and to whom he spoke words of peace; were aware of what happened.  And even they had difficulty comprehending what they saw.  Like us, they were skeptical—slow to believe.  Yet, it was this hidden event that freed humanity from the shackles of death.

Jesus rose as a sign to those who loved Him and followed Him, that God’s love is stronger than death.  Jesus’ Resurrection must not be separated from the resurrection of humanity He saved.  By entering fully into human life, He experienced the bitterness of death.  Jesus became our Brother, and our Savior.  His death was part of God’s “plan,” making Jesus the Pioneer and Leader of our salvation—pointing and leading the way along life’s road of obedience and suffering.  

Human beings will face anything, brave anything, as long as they know (or believe) it will not last forever…and that something better will happen.  Individuals routinely face long, painful and dangerous medical procedures if they believe it will make them better; prisoners endure lengthy sentences as long as they believe they will eventually experience freedom, once again; people endure the rigors of long and miserable winters, because they know spring will come again.

All this underlies the importance of hope.  Hope is as necessary for the human spirit as air, food and water are for the body.  It is amazing what can be tolerated and overcome, provided we are nourished with the “bread” of hope.

Easter gives our fragile spirits an enormous “injection” of hope.  Considering how much tragedy humans encounter in life—how so many good things are lost and important people taken from us in their prime (i.e. Thomas More; Mahatma Gandhi; John F. Kennedy; Martin Luther King,)—hope is surely needed.  Of course, Jesus was also slain…but He rose again!

At Easter, we still feel the pain of the world; pain in our families and among our friends; and pain in our own hearts.  But a new element has been introduced into our lives.  Jesus’ Resurrection doesn’t remove our pain, but it gives it meaning—lighting it with hope.  All is different because Jesus is alive and speaks His words of peace to us, just as He spoke them to the apostles, long ago.  

Faith in Jesus’ Resurrection is the basis for our hope of eternal life.  This hope enables us to bear the trials of life with patience.  Therefore, there is a quiet joy among us and a deep sense of peace, because we know life is stronger than death; love is stronger than fear; and hope is stronger than despair.  

A quote from Billy Graham sums up our role:

“As Christians, our great task is to obey the command to tell the whole world about Christ crucified, buried, yet risen again. My prayer for you during this season of the year, when we meditate on our Savior’s great sacrifice for us on the cross, is that you will be filled with great peace and hope, because ‘He is risen!’   That is the Good News.”

May God Richly Bless You!

All the Praise of a Lifetime.docx

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Edited April 9, 2023 by Father Michael