RESURRECTION 2008.

Easter Vigil - Abbot’s Homily

RESURRECTION 2008.

As with all the great events of the life of Christ, His Resurrection has many facets. There is an element of Triumph in it; an element of hope; an element of encouragement; but there is also an element of challenge. The element of Triumph is obvious. Christ has triumphed over death. The element of hope is what makes us look forward to our own bodily resurrection at the end of time. The element of encouragement is what gives us strength to fight our own battles during this life. But the element of challenge is another thing. Perhaps, even the main thing.

Let’s look then at the way the doctrine of the Resurrection challenges our faith. I dont mean that it challenges our faith by being something that is hard to believe in. If we believe in the Divinity of Christ there is no problem in believing that he could rise from the dead. Perhaps some of us might find it difficult to believe in our own bodily resurrection at the end of time. That might be a bit of a challenge to some of us. But that is not the main and most pressing challenge of the Doctrine of the Resurrection. One can ignore the doctrine of our own bodily resurrection if one finds it awkward. But there is a challenge in the doctrine of the resurrection which no one can ignore. Whether we like it or not we have to learn to face it. And if we do take it on board we will find it the answer to, and the support for, all the pains and problems of life.

To understand this challenge we must first consider that the Doctrine of the Resurrection is that Christ has triumphed over death and sin on our behalf. Now we can easily see how Christ has triumphed over death and sin personally but how does that triumph affect us? What does it do for us in our own daily struggle with sin and sickness and disease? What triumph can we claim over sickness and death and sin? We who have to live in the middle of it all, while Christ sits in glory on high! What triumph can we claim over the evils of war and plague and famine when they still stalk the earth so powerfully? Indeed, did Jesus himself not warn us that there will always be wars and rumours of war, and sickness and famine? Where is the triumph of the Resurrection then?

The triumph of the resurrection lies precisely in this: That our triumph will be of exactly the same nature as that of Christ. He attained his resurrection only by passing through death. This is not an understanding of the resurrection that we like to ponder on. But it is the only one which makes the resurrection the answer to all our ills. We will rise with Him, only if we are prepared to pass through death with him. And sufferings of this life are, in fact, that “death” through which we must all pass. We must learn to lift up our minds and hearts to where Christ is, seated in his glory, and realise that it is only when we too have passed through all the sufferings and sadnesses of this life, and eventually death itself will we be delivered from them. The ultimate answer to all our ills is this understanding of the meaning of the triumph of resurrection. But the world, of course, wants all its ills healed here and now, and therefore it is bound to find a terrible frustration and disappointed with life. The soul of faith on the other hand, looks to the resurrection as its real hope, the real deliverance from the evils that so beset us in our life in this world. The resurrection is the ultimate answer and the only complete answer And if one does not believe in the resurrection then there is no answer.

Easter blessings from Fr Raymond, Nunraw

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +