One of the unfortunate things that happens to wonderful human events is the commercialization that, over time, tends to blot out the original meaning of what happened.
Look what we’ve done to Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentines Day, and in these days . . . Easter. In each case we’re told there’s things we need to buy to properly celebrate the happy occasion.
Please don’t take me for the Grinch. Dying Easter eggs, bunnies, Easter bonnets (I love hats!), and marshmallow peeps are all fine ways to get the kids excited on that day. But . . . the fun this creates can dull our understanding of what Jesus’s resurrection means for humanity. We can lose the power of this event under a gauze of purple and pastel colors.
What can help us here? First of all the Resurrection is a fact. Facts create an environment in which we live. One plus one is two. That means two plus two is four and suddenly we have a world so predictable that we can send someone to the moon and back.
Now the Resurrection is not the kind of fact that you can prove with a mathematical counting. It’s a fact that can only be known by believing in the testimony brought forward by eye-witnesses. We do this all the time . . . believe what someone tells us. (e.g., the picture on your digital TV comes to you because of a series of 0’s and 1’s. Uh…okay. Or, I have a rock in my office I took from the Chemung River. Do you believe me? Come to my office, I’ll show you!!)
Most things we hold to be true are based on what someone tells us.
Now the testimony we have about the fact of the Resurrection comes to us from the Apostles. “We have seen the Lord! He is truly risen!!”
For about twenty reasons which I’ll not go into right here – – – I believe that what they say is true. Jesus is risen from the dead. Basically, it comes down to a gift we’ve been given. Faith. The persuasion Faith comes from the credibility of those who testify.
And who gives the testimony? Jesus has. He tells us, I am the Resurrection and the Life. “Whoever believes in me will have eternal life.” John 11: 25. This acceptance in Faith gives me knowledge of a FACT. It’s a fact and now I base my life on it. I live now in a particular way.
Because Jesus is raised from the dead, we see things in a different way:
- Human tragedies, unfairness, violence, and innocent suffering, are seen now in the same suffering of Christ and will be vindicated in the Resurrection.
- Acts of kindness and gentleness (however small and ignored) belong now within God’s love revealed in Christ’s Resurrection. All true love comes from God.
- Moments of disappointment, failure, betrayal, or even danger, have all been redeemed when Jesus accepted those very things in His own death and now He is risen.
- Parents can bring children into this troubled world knowing that human life is good and pleasing to God and will share one day in the Resurrection.
- We need not fear when our own personal end is near for Christ has prepared a place for us.
Dear Friends
Take heart. He is with you.
Easter blessings,
Fr. Tim
