On Resurrection

If Holy Saturday teaches us about death, and the existential fear of non-being, a belief in the Resurrection on Easter Sunday teaches us about the hope of eternal life as an overcoming of non-being. Resurrection is not simply a bringing back of an earthly body waiting to die again, (such as in the case of Lazarus) but it's the apparition of a heavenly body that will no longer die. Witnesses to the Resurrection emphasize the differences in Jesus' body but yet similarities as well. Jesus' risen body is one which can travel to different places in seemingly little time, yet Jesus can still show the wounds in His side to the doubting Thomas. Jesus appears as a paradox to the human condition, divine, yet still human and individualized, recognizable.

Part of the brilliance of the Resurrected phenomenon is that it does not appear to everyone. The Gospel accounts (Matthew and John in particular) emphasize the women as the first to receive the apparition of the Resurrection. Women are people who had no particular status in the ancient world, they were property either of their fathers or husbands for the most part. Jesus appeared to people without status for the most part, until he appeared to Paul. This insight is important because it enables an exploration of the unseen. The witnesses to the Resurrection see the Risen Christ, while other onlookers do not see. Other people view what the disciples see as foolishness or blasphemy. In any event, no person can see every possibility of interpretation which an event may hold, therefore, the Resurrection appears as true to some, and false to others, because our vision as humans is necessarily limited.

In the unseen, we have to ask where do we see the possibility of transcendence in our faith today. The life of Jesus is a life of self-gift and proclaiming a message that transcends time and place. The themes explored in the Bible and in particular the Gospel accounts, are ones which speak to every people who journey on the Earth. Life, death, suffering, power, mercy, and love are experiences that every person feels in life. What is seen in individual experience can never be fully understood by another, because they see but do not see. However, in this existential journey, there are certain messages that speak to a greater reality than our existential existence.

The transcendence of our faith is seen in many symbols. In liturgy, we have sacraments and our common worship. These sacraments are an opportunity for mutual self-transcendence as people come together to go outside themselves and worship God. In our liturgy outside the Church, we have love, and our communion with other people, which includes any act that seeks to proclaim liberation to the other from sin, darkness, fear, whatever image we can think of for bondage. We transcend ourselves by giving to the other because it shows the dignity of the other person. In that case, our transcends gives life to another, a life which extends beyond any particular phenomenon or moment. However, we also need to receive life from others in order to have transcendence, as being able to receive a gift is just as important as giving the gift itself. Without reception, we never appreciate the presence of the giver of a gift. Resurrection and the gift of new life is that, a gift, one which says we will new life, even after we experience non-being as an apparition on the Earth. Death, life, giving, receiving, these paradoxes express the sentiments of the Easter season, and it's these paradoxes which the Resurrection celebrates. Without interactions and paradoxes, our world simply would not function, as we consistently deal with things which are not as they appear. The gift of the Resurrection is simply another of these paradoxes, any words we can say, or sight we could see does not adequately describe the entire phenomenon, yet we see the possibility of the Resurrection being real through God's gift to humanity, and our sharing in that gift with others.

Aristocrates