632. Third.
As effected by the Trinity, the Resurrection represents the
definitive intervention of the Triune God into creation and our human history.
As in all out-going divine acts, the Resurrection is effected by all three
divine Persons working together, but each according to the distinctiveness
proper to each (cf. CCC 648-50).
Thus, like the
source of Jesus’ divine sonship and mission is the Father, so too the divine
power raising Jesus from the dead has its source in the Father (cf. Acts
2:24). Also, like Jesus’ very conception in the Virgin Mary, the divine
power re-vivifying and glorifying the dead Jesus, body and soul, is the Holy
Spirit. And as sharing equally together with Father and Spirit the one
divine power, the Eternal Son works his own humanity’s resurrection as
Jesus promised. “I have the power to lay down my life, and to take it up again”
(Jn 10:18).
II.
NEW TESTAMENT WITNESS
TO
THE RESURRECTION
633. The New Testament gives witness to Christ’s
Resurrection in three basic ways. First, the Kerygma
or early preaching of the Gospel, proclaimed the central importance of Christ’s
Resurrection. This was true for both the commission and authority of the
apostles, and for grounding the Christian Faith itself. Second, Jesus’ Presence,
both in the Risen Christ’s appearances, and then through the teaching, moral
exhortation, and worship of the Apostolic
Church, witnesses to his
Resurrection. The appearances of the Risen Christ illumine how he relates to us
through his witnesses, and the essential need for faith.
634. And finally, the Resurrection is
proclaimed as the Christians’ future. It indicates how God
saves, and illustrates this by the empty tomb. The empty tomb provides
invaluable insight into our future by showing how God actually saves us bodily
in Christ. We shall briefly investigate each of these three ways of witnessing
to Christ’s Resurrection.
A. The
Resurrection as Kerygma
635. The early
preaching contrasts Jesus’ death for sin with his Resurrection by God, and
connects them with his appearances to his disciples
and fulfilling Scripture. “Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures; . . . he was buried; . . . he was
raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures; . . . he appeared to
Cephas, then to the Twelve” (1 Cor 15:3b-5). And again: “We believe in
the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, Jesus who was handed
over to death for our transgressions and was raised for our justification” (Rom
4:24-25).
636. In key texts, Jesus’ Resurrection is linked
with the apostolic commission: “Paul, an apostle not from human beings
nor through a human being, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father who raised
him from the dead” (Gal 1:1). Matthew has the Risen Christ commissioning
his disciples for their apostolic mission. “Full authority has been given to me
both in heaven and on earth; go, therefore, and make disciples of all the
nations” (Mt 28:18-l9). These texts show how Jesus’ Resurrection
directly affected the first apostolic mission, creating the daily life and
practice of the first Christian communities.
637. But the Resurrection kerygma is
perhaps most important for grounding the Christian Faith. For the Risen
Christ not only crowns God’s Self-revelation in history. He also illumines all
of creation as its cosmic Lord, in whom “everything in heaven and on earth was
created . . . all were created through him and for him” (Col 1:16). This is the basis for the
genuine universality of Christian Faith. Through Christ’s
Resurrection, a real transformation of creation was effected by God.
638. We see some indication of this in Christian
moral praxis and spirituality. Both rest firmly on the Risen Christ’s actual
presence in the world. Without the Resurrection, Christians might simply relate
to the historical Jesus as one religious leader among many. Or they might
relate to the Risen Lord like the transcendent God, leaving behind the
historical “Jesus story.” But the mystery of the Risen Christ
unites inseparably the exalted Lord with the crucified “Man-for-others”
in a way that makes the earthly life of Jesus eternally valid and operative in
our history today.
639. One particular phrase in the Easter kerygma
is specially significant: “on the third day” (1 Cor 15:4; Acts
10:40). Throughout the Old Testament the “third day” signified a special
point in salvation history, not merely numerical time. Moses told the people:
“be ready on the third day; for on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai” (Ex 19:11). Hosea prophesied: “He
will revive us after two days; on the third day he will raise us up, to live in
his presence” (Hos 6:2). In the New Testament, Jesus used the phrase in
predictions of his Passion, in invoking the sign of Jonah (cf. Mt 12:40),
and in offering the Jews a sign of his authority to cleanse the temple:
“Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up” (Jn 2:19).
B. The
Resurrection as Jesus’ Presence
640. In his discourse to Cornelius’ household,
Peter describes the appearances of the Risen Christ (cf. CCC 641-43).
“They killed Jesus, hanging him on a tree, only to have God raise him up on the
third day and grant that he be seen, not by all, but only by such witnesses as had
been chosen beforehand by God __ by us who ate and drank with
him after he rose from the dead” (Acts 10:40-41).
Unlike the
Old Testament prophets’ experience of hearing God’s word, the disciples’
encounter with the Risen Christ is constantly described in terms of seeing,
sometimes even with “touching.” The women “embraced” the feet of Jesus
(cf. Mt 28:9). To his disciples who thought he was a ghost, the Risen
Christ said: “Look at my hands and my feet; it is really I. Touch me and see
that a ghost does not have flesh and bones as I do” (Lk 24:39). To the
doubting Thomas Jesus said: “Take your finger and examine my hands. Put your
hand into my side” (Jn 20:27).
641. These appearances of the Risen Christ have three significant
characteristics. First, they were different from visions totally within
history since the Risen Christ showed himself as transcending the ordinary
limits of time and space. Second, except for Paul, the Risen Christ
appeared only to those who could identify him with the earthly, historical
Jesus. These thus became the once-and-for-all original witnesses founding the
Church. The Apostolic Age closed with their passing; from then on, Christians
are those “who have not seen and have believed” (Jn 20:29).
642. Third,
and most importantly, the appearances did not remove all doubts nor the
need for faith (cf. CCC 644). Some doubted that the one who appeared was
really Jesus of Nazareth, others that he was the Christ. A real change of
heart, a conversion, was needed to “see” the Risen Christ as the apostle Thomas
and the Emmaus disciples clearly show (cf. Jn 20:27; Lk 24:13-35).
Matthew describes how “those who had entertained doubts fell down in homage” (Mt
28:17). This confirms the fact that faith is truly a gift. “No one can say:
‘Jesus is Lord,’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12: 3). St. Thomas
Aquinas explains that “the apostles saw the living Christ after his
Resurrection with the eyes of faith” (ST, III: 55, 2 ad 1m).
643. But the presence of the Risen Jesus was not
confined to his appearances. Rather, Christ’s active presence was intensely
felt by the early community, and linked with life in the Spirit. “We ourselves,
although we have the Spirit as firstfruits,
groan inwardly while we await the
redemption of our bodies” (Rom 8:23). Jesus’ presence was especially
felt in three areas, corresponding to our present “Doctrine,” “Morals,”
and “Worship.” First, as source of the teaching and authority of the
Christian community’s leaders. Second, in the moral exhortations of the
Pauline epistles. And third, in the community worship, especially
Baptism and the Eucharist.
Teaching
644. The Risen Christ commissioned his
disciples: You are to “teach them to carry out everything I have commanded you”
(Mt 28:20). Jesus and the Father abide in anyone who is “true to my
word. . . . We will come to him and make our dwelling place with him” (Jn
14:23). This abiding presence is effected through the Holy Spirit who “will
instruct you in everything, and remind you of all that I told you” (Jn
14:26). For the Spirit “bears witness” to the Risen Christ (cf. Jn
15:26). He “will guide you to all truth. . . announce to you the things
that are to come. In doing this he will give glory to me because he will have
received from me what he will announce to you” (Jn 16:13-14).
Pauline Moral Exhortation
645. The Risen Christ’s Paschal pattern
of new life through death determines the shape of all Christian life in the
Spirit. Christ’s Resurrection makes spiritually present He to whom every
Christian belongs. So Paul writes: “Continually we carry about in our bodies
the dying of Jesus, so that in our bodies the life of Jesus may also be
revealed” (2 Cor 4:10). He exhorts his Corinthian converts: “Christ, our
Paschal Lamb, has been sacrificed. Let us celebrate the feast not with the old
yeast of corruption and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity
and truth” (1 Cor 5:7-8).
Liturgical Worship
646. The Risen Christ’s presence was experienced
perhaps most clearly in the sacramental worship of the Christian community. First,
“in baptism you were not only buried with him but also raised to new life with
him because you believed in the power of God who raised him from the dead” (Col
2:12). The Eucharist, for Paul, makes present Christ’s Paschal Mystery: “Every
time, then, you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the death of
the Lord until he comes” (1 Cor 11:26). John stresses the notion of
abiding presence through the Eucharist: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my
blood remains in me, and I in him” (Jn 6:56).
C. The
Resurrection and the Empty Tomb
647. By itself, the tradition of the “empty
tomb” does not prove anything. But when linked to the Risen Christ’s
appearances, it is confirmatory of the Resurrection (cf. CCC 640).
More important, perhaps, is what the empty tomb indicates about the nature of
our salvation. For the corpse of Jesus was a symbol of the ultimate human sin,
and God took that corpse and made of it the beginning of the new creation.
Redemption in the Catholic sense, then, is not escaping from this sinful world,
but transforming it with all its evil and
suffering. Moreover, respect for material creation, against all forms of
spiritualism, is once again
affirmed. As He had done in creation and at the Incarnation, God once again enhances matter by raising Christ from
the dead.
PCP
II strongly supports this respect for material creation
in its appeal for “a passionate care of our earth and our environment” to
preserve the “integrity of God’s creation” (PCP II 79, 321-24).
III.
CHRIST’S ASCENSION
648. But the “raising” of Christ did not stop
with his Resurrection from the dead. An integral part of
Christ’s Paschal Mystery is his Ascension. The Risen Jesus told
Mary Magdalene: “I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and
your God” (Jn 20:17; cf. CCC 659-60). John’s Gospel neatly unifies all
dimensions of Christ’s Paschal Mystery (Crucifixion, Resurrection, and
Ascension) by Jesus’ assertion of being “lifted up” (cf. Jn 3:14; 8:28;
12:32-33). These correspond to the predictions of the Passion, Death and
Resurrection in the Synoptic Gospels (e.g., Mk 8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34).
The
predictions of both the Passion and “being lifted up” have two things in
common. They speak of 1) the “Son of Man,” and 2) the divine
imperative. “So must the Son of Man be lifted up” (Jn 3:143).
And “The Son of Man had to suffer much. . . be put to death, and rise three
days later” (Mk 8:31).
649. The primary
meaning of being raised or “lifted up” is Christ’s
exaltation, sovereign authority and power over creation and all history
(cf. CCC 668-70). This recalls a “Suffering Servant” prophecy of Isaiah: “See, my Servant shall prosper, he shall be raised high and greatly exalted”
(Is 52:13). It also appears in two of Peter’s discourses in Acts expressing both Resurrection and
Ascension. “The God of our fathers has raised up Jesus whom you put to
death, hanging him on a tree. He whom God has exalted at His right hand
as Ruler and Savior to bring repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins” (Acts
5:30-31). Referring “lifted up” also to Christ’s Ascension to the Father,
then, helps explain: “When you lift up the Son of Man, you will come to realize
that I AM” (Jn 8:28). “I AM” was the name God revealed to Moses in Ex
3:14, which John’s Gospel uses to bring out the divinity of Jesus.
650. But the Ascension is also a saving
event for us. Christ’s return to the Father was necessary for sending
the Spirit: “It is much better for you that I go. . . . If I go, I will send
the Paraclete to you” (Jn 16:7). Jesus’ Ascension to his Father did not
separate him from the world. Rather, it made him even more present to his
disciples.
The Lord Jesus was taken up into heaven and took his
seat at God’s right hand. The Eleven went forth and preached everywhere. The Lord
continued to work with them throughout, and to confirm the message through the
signs which accompanied them” (Mk 16:19-20).
Paul also stresses this same active presence of
“Christ Jesus who died or rather was raised up, who is at the right hand of God
and who intercedes for us” (Rom 8:34).
651. Christ’s Ascension, then, brings out a
number of basic truths of our Christian Faith. First, the Ascension
marks Jesus’ exaltation into the heavenly realm of his Father. Second,
it does not separate Christ from us because as he promised, from heaven he
“draws everyone to himself” (Jn 12:32). Third, since “he lives
forever to make intercession,” Christ continues to exercise his priesthood
since he entered “heaven itself, that he might now appear before God on our
behalf” (Heb 7:25; 9:24). Finally, the ascended Christ as Head of the
Church gives us, members of his Body, the hope of one day entering into glory
with him (cf. CCC 661-67).
652. The Preface of the Ascension summarizes
these truths neatly as it proclaims:
Christ, the Mediator between God and man,
Judge of the world and Lord of all,
has passed beyond our sight,
not to abandon us but to be our hope.
Christ is the beginning, the head of the Church;
where he has gone, we hope to follow.
IV.
CHRIST WILL COME AGAIN
653. We are
aware of the living presence of the Risen Christ among us in the Holy Spirit
sent among us. But we also know from the Creed that he “will come again to
judge the living and the dead” (cf. CCC 687-82). In the first
eucharistic acclamation we proclaim: “Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ
will come again!” “Parousia,” meaning “coming” or “presence,”
is the traditional term for Christ’s Second Coming as divine Judge (cf. Mt 24:3, 27, 37, 39;
1 Cor 15:23; etc.). “The Son of Man will come with his Father’s glory
accompanied by his angels. When he does, he will repay each man
according to his conduct” (Mt 16:27-28).
654. In the early days Christians prayed for
this coming of Christ their Savior: “O Lord, come! Marana tha!” (1
Cor 16:22; Rev 22:20). But gradually this longing for their forgiving
Savior gave way to gnawing consciousness of individual sinfulness and
infidelity. The attitude of longing for the Lord was replaced by something akin
to the Old Testament prophetic warnings. The “Day of the Lord” was
pictured as a “Day of Judgment,” a Dies Irae (Day of God’s
Wrath). In recent times there has been a renewal of the New Testament
stress on Christ’s “saving presence,” and his Second Coming as introducing the
final completion not just of the individuals but of the whole world. The final
destiny of the human race is ultimately in God’s hands.
655. But confusion often arises today, partly
due to the exaggerated interpretations of the final day by some fundamentalist
sects. They overemphasize and interpret in literal fashion the poetic,
apocalyptic descriptions of the end of the world given in the Bible, especially
in Daniel and the book of Revelation. Biblical literature of this type has to
be read in terms of its typical characteristics.
First, while
seemingly a revelation of the future, apocalyptic texts actually are usually a
commentary on their own times. Second, the revelation is generally
presented in a vision or dream, in which allegorical language and complicated
symbolism are used. Third, the texts attempt by such means to portray
the final end of world history and the fearful destruction of all the evil
forces in the world.
656. Given such qualities of biblical
apocalyptic literature, it is more important for us, Filipino Catholics, to
focus on the basic truths of the Parousia. The first is
that the Risen Christ as the Son of Man will “come to judge the living
and the dead” (2 Tim 4:1). “The Lord himself will come down from
heaven at the word of command, at the sound of the archangel’s voice and God’s
trumphet; and those who have died in Christ will rise first” (1 Thes 4:16).
Second, Christ’s Second Coming will be unmistakable since it will
be accompanied by unprecedented signs in the heavens and on the earth. “As the
lightning from the East flashes to the West, so will the coming of the Son of
Man be” (Mt 24:27).
657. Third, regarding when the parousia will take place, the Gospel is
very clear. “As for the exact day or hour, no one knows it,
neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but the Father only” (Mt 24:36).
Therefore, fourth, because it will come unexpectedly, “like a thief in
the night” (1 Thes 5:2),
we must “be constantly on the watch! Stay awake! You do not know
when the appointed time will come” (Mk 13:33).
658. Lastly, because Christ is already in his glory, and has sent his Spirit among
us, the “time” of salvation has already come. Now is the
time when our salvation is being worked out in our daily acts with our
neighbors. “When the Son of Man comes in his glory,” he will judge our acts
according to one norm: “As often as you did it for one of my least brothers,
you did it for me” (Mt 25:31, 40).
INTEGRATION
659. The doctrine
of Christ’s Resurrection and Second Coming constitutes a central part in our understanding
who Jesus Christ IS. Without much speculative reasoning, the ordinary Catholic
Filipino instinctively senses that Christ as Risen Savior and as Judge must be
true God and true man in some way. He is both one of us, able “to sympathize
with our weakness” (Heb 4:15), and yet capable of taking “away the sin
of the world,” and given “the power to pass judgment” on
it (Jn 1:29; 5:27). As risen from the dead, Christ is present and
operative in our human history, the “Head” of the Christian communities, the
Church.
660. Christian morality rests
precisely on the presence of the Risen Christ among us today, through the
Spirit he has sent into our hearts. For the living Risen Christ is not merely
some external “model” of 2,000 years ago, proposed for our imitation. He is,
rather, a personal presence through his living biblical Word, and in
active grace-filled power within us. The Risen Christ’s presence, both personal
and com-munitarian, in Filipino Catholics, is the abiding source of our
authentic Christian moral discernment and strength for our daily living out our
Christian Faith.
661. Christian worship depends for
its validity on the Resurrection, for if
Jesus be not risen, he cannot mediate for us before the Father, nor be
experienced in his Sacraments. The reality of the Resurrection was brought home
sharply to the early Christians precisely in their experience of him in their worship. Today, in the active liturgies of
thriving parishes and BECs, we Filipino Catholics share the same
experience. We come to recognize him “in the breaking of bread” (Lk 24:35).
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
662. Why
is it so important to believe in Christ’s Resurrection?
Because
the Risen Christ is the key to our salvation and all authentic knowledge of
God. If Christ is not risen, our faith is worthless (cf. 1 Cor 15:17).
663. What
is the meaning and salvific importance of Christ’s Resurrection?
Christ’s
resurrection is not simply a “fact” of information, but rather, together
with the Incarnation, the most significant event of the Christian Faith. It
• confirmed all Christ had done and taught
during his public ministry;
• fulfilled the Old Testament prophecies;
• confirmed Jesus as the “only Son of the
Father”;
• enabled Christ to share his new life with us
as adopted sons and daughters of the Father; and
• will be the principle and source of our
resurrection.
664. What
is the challenge surrounding the Resurrection?
The
challenge today is not in accepting Christ’s Resurrection, but in living out
the Gospel of the Risen Christ.
665. Does
the Resurrection “prove” the Gospel message?
Christ’s
Resurrection is not only the proof of the Gospel message. It is the central Gospel message itself.
666. What
does “Jesus Christ rose from the dead” mean?
It
means that:
• Jesus passed from death to
• a new, definitive glorified life,
• effected by the Blessed Trinity, and
• is now the source of that new life for all.
667. How
does the New Testament witness to Christ’s Resurrection?
The
New Testament testifies to Christ’s Resurrection in four ways, namely,
in its:
• Easter proclamation and apostolic mandate;
• descriptions
of the Risen Christ’s appearances to his disciples;
• narrative of the tradition of the empty tomb;
and
• account of the early Christian community’s
experience of the Risen Christ’s presence in the Holy Spirit.
668. What
is an example of the early kerygma?
In
the First Letter to the Corinthians St. Paul wrote: “Christ died for our sins
in accordance with the Scriptures; . . . he was buried and rose from the dead
on the third day, . . . he was seen by Cephas, then by the Twelve” (1 Cor
15:3-5).
669. How
did the Risen Christ show his presence in the world?
The
Risen Christ was seen by his disciples, but especially experienced through the
teaching, the moral exhortation, and in the liturgical worship of the early
Christian communities.
670. What does the “Ascension” mean?
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