Year after year we celebrate the Passion and Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And, very often, we tend to pay more attention to liturgical settings, rather than putting ourselves truly before the Lord’s paschal event and again encountering his rising from the dead. We have taken it for granted. This very fact has, somehow, failed us to appreciate the significance of Christ’s resurrection, affected the core meaning of Easter celebration, and caused our Christian faith less vibrant.
Remember, though Jesus had been followed and glorified by many people, e.g. “Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord†(Mk 11:1–10; Mt 21:1–9; Lk 19:29–38; Jn 12:12–15), standing by his cross at the end were only his mother, his mother’s sister and Mary of Magdala (Cf. Mt 27:55; Mk 15:40–41; Lk 8:2; 23:49). The disciples who used to join with Peter saying, “Even though I should have to die with you, I will not deny you†(Mt 26:33-35), were all scattered except John (Jn 19:25-26). More vehement was Peter, “Master, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life†(Jn 6:68). He even struck the high priest’s slave and cut off his right ear as Jesus was arrested (Cf. Jn 18:10). Yet while Jesus was questioned in the high priest’s palace, outside Peter three times denied him (Cf. Mt 26:69–75; Mk 14:66–72; Lk 22:56–62; Jn 18:17–18, 25–27). The picture of Christianity at the cross of Jesus was as downcast and gloomy as the face of the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Some hope!
In spite of such hopeless outlook, the history of Christianity is well over two thousand years old now. There are more than two billion followers of Christ from all different nations around the world today. How can we explain this fact unless it was God’s divine intervention to exalt the one who had “humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross†(Phil 2:8)? As a good Catholic we may also argue that it was the Holy Spirit, “the Lord, the giver of life,†who raised Jesus up from the dead and revivified the faith of his followers – the Church. Yet we shouldn’t forget that the Holy Spirit, “who proceeds from the Father and the Son,†could only descend upon the Apostles fifty days after the Resurrection of Christ! Thus, the resurrection of Jesus must be due to God, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and all the living creatures in it. The resurrection of Jesus again tells us that God is the God of Life. God of Life does not want Death. He had Jesus by his resurrection Christ defeat Death, the last enemy of humanity.
Jesus’ resurrection indeed reconfirms his identity as Son of God and he is God himself in human form. The disciples who had not yet understood the scripture that he had to rise from the dead now “saw and believed†(Jn 20:8; Cf. Lk 24:31).  Jesus’ resurrection does not only demonstrate the divinity of the historical Jesus, whose Father is God, but also it glorifies the name of Jesus as God the Savior; for from that time on it is the name of Jesus that fully manifests the supreme power of the “name that is above every name†(Phil. 2:9). “The evil spirits fear his name; in his name his disciples perform miracles, for the Father grants all they ask in this name†(CCC. 434).
Last but not least, unlike the resurrection of Lazarus (Cf. Jn 11:43-44) and other examples of resurrection recorded in the Bible, or the reincarnation and rebirth according to Egyptian and other Eastern religions, whose life was resurrected but then ended up dying again. With Christ, however, this isn’t the case; Christ resurrected, and He completely defeated death. Death no longer had any hold over Him (Acts 2:24).
Christ’s resurrection is a resurrection out of the old creation and into God. Christ, as “the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep†(1 Cor 15:20), has put in advance the vision of “new heaven and new earth†and thus helped us never fail to hope in him as the Way, the Truth and the Life. May our yearly celebration of the Paschal and Resurrection of Jesus truly be an encounter that we draw from it the Faith, Hope and Love necessary for our daily Christian life. Amen!
Peter Thoại O.P.