THE MYSTERY OF CHRIST RESURRECTION

EASTER SUNDAY

Act 10:34,37-43; Ps 118:1-2,16-17,22-23; Col 3:1-4; Lk 24:1-12

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Church celebrates the ceremony of the resurrection of Jesus Christ during the Easter Vigil, preferably in the night. The celebration is colourful and full of symbols and symbolic gestures with deep mystical meanings. It is a feast of light that commences with the lighting of the Pascal Candle, signifying the Risen Lord, and the proclamation of the Exultet, the Church’s song of thanksgiving to God for the wonder of the resurrection and the eternal day of grace it ushers in for the human race. The selected readings from the Old Testament locate the foundation of the gift of the Lord’s resurrection in the promises made by God in Law and Prophets, and the New Testament readings bear witness to its occurrence in mystery. The night gives this sense of divine mystery, which is dark to human understanding. Our readings for the Mass of the day consolidate on those of the Vigil Mass. All the readings of the Octave would be for the same purpose of witnessing the resurrection of the Lord to strengthen the faith of Christians and the newly baptised in the Risen Lord.

The many witnesses from the readings are because, unlike the life, suffering, crucifixion, and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, which are public and historical events, the resurrection is not public. It is not historical. Thus, the resurrection of the Lord is a thing of faith because he rose into mysteries. His resurrection activated all the mysteries of the faith for and in the Church. The Risen Lord has a transformed or glorified body, which is not perceptible to human senses nor encompassed by time but given to faith. Only the eyes of faith behold the Risen Lord. Saint Peter’s address to Cornelius and his household in the first reading expresses this truth. “Now I, and those with me, can witness to everything he did throughout the countryside of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and also to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on the tree, yet three days afterward God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand.” Everybody in Jerusalem then witnessed the passion and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, but not his resurrection, which is the privilege reserved for the faithful.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the foundation of the Church. It is the core of our belief in his divinity. It proves the divine origin of the Son of Man, for it demonstrates his power over death. It also authenticates the teachings of the Son of Man as coming from the Father.  As Peter mentioned, the witnesses God chose beforehand form the nucleus of the Church and the foundation members of the new people of God. The apostles and disciples of our Lord who witnessed the passion and death of Christ had only the physical evidence of his resurrection, namely, the empty tomb. The women who went to anoint his dead body were the first to experience the empty tomb. “On the first day of the week, at the first sign of dawn, they went to the tomb with the spices they have had prepared. They found that the stone had been rolled away from the tomb, but on entering discovered that the body of the Lord Jesus was not there.” What we have here is the only historical fact about the resurrection of the Lord. It is what the world and every other person without faith have. Anybody can verify these historical data, but not his resurrection.

The empty tomb is a sealed gate into the Church of Jesus Christ, the House of Mysteries. Hence, the Church baptises those who knock at the door of faith into the mysteries at the Easter Vigil. All those already baptised renew their baptismal profession to enter and re-grasp, with deeper insight, the mysteries of our faith in the Risen Lord. The faith of the women who experience the empty tomb first was seeded by the appearance of angels. “As they stood there not knowing what to think, two men in brilliant clothes suddenly appeared at their side. Terrified, the women lowered their eyes. But the two men said to them, ‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not here; he has risen. Remember what he told you when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of Man had to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day?’” This reminder of his sacred words seeded or jumpstarted their faith in the resurrection of the Lord. They joyfully went to report to the apostles. The apostles who received the Good News and considered it nonsense only experienced the empty tomb and came away with only amazement in place of joy in the resurrection because they failed to believe the News.

The Good News will remain a fable or fairy tale of amazing things as long as we keep our gazes, minds, and hearts locked on physical things and fail to lift them to heavenly things through the words and divinity of Jesus Christ in faith. Paul urges us to lock our mystical gaze unto the Risen Lord through his letter to the Colossians. “Since you have been brought back to true life with Christ, you must look for the things that are in heaven, where Christ is, sitting at God’s right hand.” Through our baptismal profession, which we renew on this day, the Church unlocks the door leading into the mysteries of Jesus from the empty tomb so that we may experience the Risen Lord and feast in his presence. We make the words of Saint Peter ours after the baptismal profession and Eucharistic celebration: “Now we are those witnesses—we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead—and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people and to tell them that God has appointed him to judge everyone, alive or dead.” Since he died for us, the empty tomb becomes our tomb, helping us to share his death so that we may share his risen life. Saint Paul explains what this entails. “Let your thoughts be on heavenly things, not on the things that are on the earth, because you have died, and now the life you have is hidden with Christ in God.” With faith, let us enter into the day of eternity the Lord has made for us. 

Let us pray: O God, who on this day, through your Only Begotten Son, have conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity, grant, we pray, that we who keep the solemnity of the Lord’s Resurrection may, through the renewal brought by your Spirit, rise up in the light of life. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.