THE TRUTH OF THE RESURRECTION

Christianity rises or falls on the claim of the Resurrection of her founder from the dead. St. Paul admitted as much: “If Christ has not been raised, then empty is our preaching; empty, too, your faith…If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all” (1 Cor 15:14,19). Everything turns on the truth of the Resurrection of Christ. The Catechism of the Catholic Church provides an excellent and succinct explanation of the significance of the Resurrection, including this affirmation: “The Resurrection of Jesus is the crowning truth of our faith in Christ, a faith believed and lived as the central truth by the first Christian community; handed on as fundamental by Tradition; established by the documents of the New Testament; and preached as an essential part of the Paschal mystery along with the cross” (#638).

Faith in the Resurrection is what drove the early Christians to spread the good news. Their faith was reasonable, for it was founded on the testimony of those who knew Christ before and after his death. The same Christ who was crucified is the same Christ, risen from the dead, who appeared to those who believed in him before his crucifixion. St. Paul writes, “He appeared to Cephas [i.e. Peter], and then to the Twelve. After that he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at once, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. After that he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, he appeared to me” (1 Cor 15:5-8). Many who testified to having met the risen Christ would go to their deaths affirming the truth of what they claimed. Their perseverance in eyewitness testimony, when they could have escaped persecution and death by denying having met the Risen Lord, is powerful evidence of the veracity of their claims.

The same Jesus who preached in Galilee and Jerusalem appeared again in those places after his Resurrection. He did not appear as a spirit or ghost, as did the prophet Samuel to King Saul (cf. 1 Sam 28:8-19), but rose in the physical order, in the same body which he received from his Mother Mary. The wounds remained visible in his resurrected body, although now they were glorified and were no longer painful. Jesus proved his physical existence to his disciples by allowing himself to be touched, and he ate some food in front of them. It was clear to them that the same body that was crucified was the same body which rose from the dead. However, it was now a glorified body, as the Catechism states, which had passed “from the state of death to another life beyond time and space” (#646). Jesus’ glorified body possessed qualities it did not have before, including the ability to immediately go from one place to another, for now it belonged to the divine realm of the Father. In his glorified body Jesus is not limited by space and time and can appear as he wishes, as we see when he was mistaken as a gardener by the women who came to attend to his burial site. He is not immediately recognized in the initial appearances after his death, but when he speaks and clearly shows himself to the women, to Peter, and then to the other disciples, they recognize him and believe.

The Resurrection of Jesus was a transcendent event with no direct witnesses. No earthly soul saw him rise, but the truth was verified by the empty tomb, the message of the angel who claimed he was alive, by recalling what he had told them during his lifetime, by the witness of Old Testament prophecy, and most important, by actually meeting him in the flesh and speaking with him after his Resurrection. The miraculous works which Peter and others did in his Name further confirmed their testimony. Our faith in the Resurrection of Jesus is an historical event that was testified to by those who knew him before he died. The 2,000 years of Christian history that have followed have only further confirmed the truth that Christ is risen, he is risen indeed! Alleluia!