Sunday, April 4, 2021

Happy Easter

In the Catholic Times were a number of articles that commemorated the Feast of Easter. It is the center of the liturgical year and gives meaning to the life of faith.

The miracle of death  and being brought back to life are found in the Scriptures. That's not only one or two cases either.
 
These miracles of calling the dead back to life reveal the power of God, but death was postponed  only briefly, and must be distinguished from the resurrection of Jesus. All baptized Christians must live a life of resurrection day by day and move toward the coming completion.
 
On this Easter, as all those of the past, we are not only celebrating the resurrection of Jesus in a most important and grand manner in the liturgy  but also  confessing and hoping in faith in our own resurrection.

Some might say that Christ resurrected himself, and the rest were revived by God, so it was different. Of course, that's right. In fact, there is a description in the Bible that prophets and apostles prayed before doing such miracles, and the subject of miracles is not a prophet or an apostle, but God.

But the resurrection of Christ is more than just a death and resurrection. It is essentially different from other coming back to life seen in the Scriptures.These certainly are miraculous events, but only by the power of God or the power of Jesus that restored life. Simply put, they will eventually die again when the time comes.

On the other hand, the resurrection of Christ is a "spirited body" that "went from death to another world of life beyond time and space." Jesus' body is not only filled with the power of the Holy Spirit through resurrection, but also participates in God's life in its glorious state. So, many theologians describe the event of the dead in the Bible as "resuscitation."
 
"Resuscitation has only escaped death for a while, not overcome death."  These words of a theologian express well what is meant and he  goes on: "Jesus resurrection is to gain eternal life.The resuscitation event conducted by prophets or apostles is a miracle to reveal God's glory through God's power, and the resurrection miracles caused by Jesus can be seen as a prediction of Jesus' resurrection."

The calling back to life stories  of the Bible are great miracles, but they are only resuscitation. But no one  except Jesus who have risen from the dead to a new life. The Bible however does say there are other people who are resurrected like Christ. It is the story of each and every one of us who have been baptized. 
 
"You have been taught that when we were baptized in Christ Jesus we were baptized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we too might life a new life" (Roman 6:3-4).

As Paul mentioned, the church teaches, "Through baptism, people are bound to the Pascal Mystery of Christ, die with Christ, buried together, and resurrect together."(Article 6 of the 2nd Vatican Council) That's why Christians spend "Sunday," the eighth day of Christ's resurrection, as a holy day as a Sunday, and make the day of the Lord's resurrection the greatest example. In the same vein, the reason for lighting the resurrection plant during the baptismal sacrament is in the same vein.

The resurrection of Christ continues on the great feast of the Lord's resurrection. Of course, the resurrection through Christ has already been achieved, but we are waiting for the completion that has not yet come. As the Bible says, "I have tasted the power of the world to come" (Heb, 6,5). Christians who are new in Christ at baptism can remember the words in 2 Cor. 5:15, "And the reason Jesus died for all was so that living men should live no longer for themselves but for him who died and was raised to life for them."