Pastor’s Page
April 12, 2009
The Easter Victory

     Our Catholic imaginations, from our earliest days, have been enchanted by the Christmas crib, Mary and Joseph, the shepherds and angels, the magi and the star. Yuletide carols, the Christmas tree, stockings by the fireplace, St. Nicholas bearing gifts, tinsel and ornaments, have heightened the festive nature of the birth of the Messiah, the coming of the Son of God. Easter eggs, bunnies, jelly beans and chocolate do not create a similar impact on our hearts and minds. How many Easter hymns do you know by rote?

     There is something very alluring and life affirming about a mother and newborn. How many artists effectively depict the Resurrection? How many hundreds have produced masterpieces around the Gospel infancy narratives? The Christmas crèche in town squares throughout the land is St. Francis’ contribution to the vital importance of Christ’s birth.

     The earliest and shortest Gospel, Mark, (16 chapters) was written around the year 70AD, some thirty-five years after the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Mark begins by recognizing Jesus as the Son of God, and has the adult Christ beginning his public ministry with baptism by John in the Jordan River. No mention is made of the birth stories we are so comfortable with and that occur only in the decade later gospels of Matthew and Luke. One third of Mark is spent on one week in the life of Jesus; his final week journeying up to Jerusalem.

      The Gospels were composed in the aftermath of the Resurrection. No one had ever come back from the dead, yet Jesus’ followers in multiple encounters, experienced him as fully alive after he had been crucified and entombed. The keystone of our faith is Christ’s victory, a Resurrection that gradually led the early church to the awareness that Jesus was not only a man, but the Son of God, and equal to God. The more developed Trinitarian theology we have inherited (the Nicene-Constantinopolitan creed of the fourth century) took centuries to evolve in the church’s tradition.

     The Risen One shattered the darkness of sin and death. They have no more power over us. We who have tried to live a graced life as Christ has shown us will “inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world” and “he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through his Spirit who dwells in you.” (Romans 8.11) “If Christ has not been raised, then our faith is in vain….But in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” (1 Cor. 15:13-14)
“We are Easter people” said St. Augustine writing in the fourth century, and “ ‘Alleluia’ is our song!”

Easter Peace and Joy to you,

Peace, Father Bruce