What does the Church teach about Jesus Christ? Part Nine

Before we begin to discuss the wondrous Resurrection of Our Lord, let us recap what we have covered so far in this series on what the Church teaches about Jesus Christ:

1)      The 4 major identities of this person:  Jesus. Christ, Son of God, and Lord.

2)      Jesus living in the Trinity  (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) as the Second Person, the Son

3)      The Incarnation, God becoming man  in the Person of Jesus

4)      Common elements to all of Jesus’ life: revelation, redemption, recapitulation.

5)      The Infancy narrative

6)      The public ministry of Jesus

7)      The Suffering of Jesus

8)      The burial and descent into hell of Jesus

And now we come to the highlight of Our Lord’s life on Earth, his Resurrection.

Let us review some key points the Catechism makes about this wondrous, glorious, yet mysterious event.

First off, the Resurrection is a historical event.  It happened in human history.  It is not made-up.  Here is the evidence:

1)      The empty tomb We read in #640:  "Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen." The first element we encounter in the framework of the Easter events is the empty tomb. In itself it is not a direct proof of Resurrection; the absence of Christ's body from the tomb could be explained otherwise.  Nonetheless the empty tomb was still an essential sign for all. Its discovery by the disciples was the first step toward recognizing the very fact of the Resurrection. This was the case, first with the holy women, and then with Peter.  The disciple "whom Jesus loved" affirmed that when he entered the empty tomb and discovered "the linen cloths lying there", "he saw and believed". This suggests that he realized from the empty tomb's condition that the absence of Jesus' body could not have been of human doing and that Jesus had not simply returned to earthly life as had been the case with Lazarus.    The empty tomb did not convince them entirely he was resurrected, but it began the process of them being open to the possibility.  It was a first step.  The second piece of evidence will complete the process of convincing them.

2)      The appearances of the Risen One   We read in #641: Mary Magdalene and the holy women who came to finish anointing the body of Jesus, which had been buried in haste because the Sabbath began on the evening of Good Friday, were the first to encounter the Risen One.  Thus the women were the first messengers of Christ's Resurrection for the apostles themselves. They were the next to whom Jesus appears: first Peter, then the Twelve. Peter had been called to strengthen the faith of his brothers, and so sees the Risen One before them; it is on the basis of his testimony that the community exclaims: "The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon!"    These accounts of these appearances are extremely credible, as the Catechism explains on #643 and #644, because of the inclination of those first witnesses to doubt and uncertainty, and how it took something like this to sway them.  These paragraphs are worth quoting in their entirety:   Given all these testimonies, Christ's Resurrection cannot be interpreted as something outside the physical order, and it is impossible not to acknowledge it as an historical fact. It is clear from the facts that the disciples' faith was drastically put to the test by their master's Passion and death on the cross, which he had foretold.  The shock provoked by the Passion was so great that at least some of the disciples did not at once believe in the news of the Resurrection. Far from showing us a community seized by a mystical exaltation, the Gospels present us with disciples demoralized ("looking sad"⁾ and frightened. For they had not believed the holy women returning from the tomb and had regarded their words as an "idle tale". When Jesus reveals himself to the Eleven on Easter evening, "he upbraided them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen. Even when faced with the reality of the risen Jesus the disciples are still doubtful, so impossible did the thing seem: they thought they were seeing a ghost. "In their joy they were still disbelieving and still wondering.Thomas will also experience the test of doubt and St. Matthew relates that during the risen Lord's last appearance in Galilee "some doubted." Therefore the hypothesis that the Resurrection was produced by the apostles' faith (or credulity) will not hold up. On the contrary their faith in the Resurrection was born, under the action of divine grace, from their direct experience of the reality of the risen Jesus.    These witnesses to the Risen One are definitely reliable with their testimony.  They required a lot of convincing to get them to believe!

The Catechism speaks of the state of Jesus’ body after the Resurrection.  It was the same, real body as the one had before, but it had been changed:  By means of touch and the sharing of a meal, the risen Jesus establishes direct contact with his disciples. He invites them in this way to recognize that he is not a ghost and above all to verify that the risen body in which he appears to them is the same body that had been tortured and crucified, for it still bears the traces of his Passion. Yet at the same time this authentic, real body possesses the new properties of a glorious body: not limited by space and time but able to be present how and when he wills; for Christ's humanity can no longer be confined to earth, and belongs henceforth only to the Father's divine realm.  For this reason too the risen Jesus enjoys the sovereign freedom of appearing as he wishes: in the guise of a gardener or in other forms familiar to his disciples, precisely to awaken their faith. (#645)    

In addition to being a historical event, the Resurrection is also a transcendent one.  No one witnessed the actual Resurrection.  It cannot be explained by physical factors alone.  It is at the heart of the mystery of faith.   Yes, it occurred in history, but it is also transcends and surpasses it.

Each of the other persons of the Trinity is involved in the Resurrection.  The Father raised up the Son, and brought his humanity, his body, into the Trinity, through the Holy Spirit, who actually breathed life into the body. 


Finally, what is the meaning of the Resurrection, as both a historical and transcendent event?

1)      It confirms all of Christ’s works and teachings. It validates what he said and did during his public ministry.

2)      It fulfills all his promises, as well as ones from the Old Testament.   He is truly the long awaited for Savior.

3)      It confirms his divinity.   He is the Son of God.

4)      It opens for us the way to a new life.   We are not just liberated from sin; we are now partakers in divine life with Our Lord.

5)      It is the source of our future resurrection.  It gives us hope that if we unite ourselves to him through Baptism, and remain in a state of grace, we, too, will rise.

At the beginning of this series, I said that it was OK to read other writings on Jesus, but only after you know what the Catechism says.   I cannot stress that enough when it comes to the Resurrection.   While you can find plenty of good material out there that goes into a lot more detail on each of the points made in this post,  and remains faithful to them, you will find plenty of writings out there that speak on this topic that go against what the Church teaches.  You will find things that say the Resurrection was a hoax, that Jesus’ teachings are what is the most important and the Resurrection was something his followers made up to whip up support for his teachings.   Do not believe them!  If Our Lord is not raised from the dead, Jesus is a liar, and the Christian faith is meaningless.  Everything rides on it.

The Resurrection was a glorious event.  But Our Lord’s life on Earth did not end there:  there is one more event in the life of Jesus that we have to discuss and that is his Ascension.  We will do that in the next post.

Joseph, light of Patriarchs, pray for us.