(Easter Season Article)
(For Christianity)
You have heard the adage “Seeing is believing.” You may have used it yourself. What do you think explains that even at the actual time of Easter, living through, watching Jesus’ Passion and suffering, and death on the cross, then actually seeing Him and speaking with Him and eating with Him, you would think there would be no doubt of what Jesus had done. Yet, on the contrary, records reveal that the faith of the Apostles did not spring from credulity or enthusiasm. This is such a story, sorely needing revisiting now, because it is still vital to every created being for their faith and belief that leads to eternal salvation.
He appeared to Mary Magdalene and the other women, to Peter and to the disciples at Emmaus. Jesus showed himself on the very evening of Easter to the Eleven and to the others who were gathered together with them in Jerusalem (Lk 24:35-48).
They believed in the resurrection and were talking about it, saying, “The Lord has risen indeed. He has appeared to Simon.” They just heard the account of the two from Emmaus. Still, when Jesus stood in their midst “they were startled and frightened, and supposed they were seeing a spirit.” The manifestation of the divine so dazzles the human mind that doubt arises spontaneously. Can it be true? Is it my imagination? The doubts, the hesitation of the disciples, is a blessing for us, because their faith was based on objective examination with realistic perception.
Jesus helped them himself to realize the truth of things. He said, “See my hands and my feet, that it is myself. Handle me and see; for a spirit has not flesh and bones as you see that I have.” They saw, they touched. What can be handled cannot be imaginary. However, the joy of finding their Teacher alive again is so great that they still do not dare to believe. And the Lord, adapting himself more and more to their way of thinking said: “Have you anything here to eat?” He took fish and “ate before them.” His state of glory freed him from all physical need, but he took food to prove the concrete reality of his Person. He is there in their midst in his glorified body, and if his body has special powers, such as unexpectedly appearing and disappearing, it is still his own real body, as is proved by the mark of the nails in his hands and feet, and the wound in his side (Jn 20:25-27).
The risen Lord adapted himself in his appearances with wonderful condescension to the state of mind of those to whom he showed himself. He did not treat all the same, but by different ways and methods led them all to the certainty of his resurrection. This is what mattered. The Resurrection is the key to the whole of Christianity, and he wanted to give the newborn Church every guarantee of it, so that down through the centuries the faith of the faithful might rest upon a solid foundation. “The Lord is risen indeed!” Upon this great truth we can each base our own life.
Jesus expounded the Scriptures to the Eleven while they were gathered in Jerusalem. It was not enough for them to recognize Him and to believe in his resurrection, they had been witnessing, and what was written of him “in the law of Moses, and the prophets, and the psalms” (Lk 24:44). There was complete identification between the Messiah of the prophets and the historical Jesus with whom they had lived and whom they had see die on the cross, and now find risen again. It is this identity that makes their faith and their hope valid. During his earthly life, Jesus had explained these things: “These are my words which I spoke to you while I was still with you” (ib.), but the disciples had not understood. Jesus, risen, had to “open their minds” before they could finally comprehend what the Scriptures had proclaimed, namely that “the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead” (ib. 46). It is not hard for me to see that they did not understand. But peoples of today have a greater advantage than that of the Apostles, we have their history, Scriptures in virtually every home, and 2000 Church years.
Now, as then, people need to know that if we do not understand the Passion, neither can we understand the Resurrection; and, conversely, the latter explains and justifies the former. For any one who believes in the resurrection of Christ, in which is included and foretold the resurrection of the faithful, the cross is no longer a cause of bewilderment or scandal, neither in regard to the passion of Christ nor to the suffering that enters into each one’s personal life. (You probably ought to stop right here and ponder these words.)
The Apostles’ preaching follows the lines traced out by Jesus; an example of this is found in Peter’s discourses, in which there is always a connection made between the Old Testament, the life of Christ, and his resurrection. “The God of Abraham and of Isaac and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, (that is to say, the God of the promises), glorified his servant Jesus, (the Savior presented as the servant of Jahweh), whom you delivered up and denied… whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses… What God foretold by the mouth of all the prophets, that his Christ should suffer, he thus fulfilled” (Acts 3:13,15,18).
This is a synthesis of the history of salvation: from the promises made to Abraham up to the coming of the Savior, and to his passion, death, and resurrection. In his great love, God prearranged and fulfilled all this for the salvation of men “so that those who live, might live no longer for themselves, but for him who for their sake died and was raised” (2 Cor 5:15).
******
Prayer: O Lord, come into my soul and say to my powers and senses “Peace be with you.” Lord, give me the peace the world cannot give; make peace between my flesh and my spirit, between my interior and my exterior powers; put me at peace with your Father and with my brothers. O Lord, say to my soul: “It is I, fear not,”
Finally, O Lord, I beg you to reveal to me, as you did to your disciples, the secrets of Holy Scripture. I confess that my sins make me incapable of understanding them; open for me the book of your mysteries, and open my intellect so that I may understand them and be all inflamed in the fire of your love. Amen.
Thanks for visiting. - Bob "Happy Easter Season to you and yours"
