 |
| El Greco, The Resurrection |
My pastor told a great story in his
homily last night at the Easter Vigil that I’d like to share with you. Unlike in the West where we say, “Happy
Easter,” the Easter greeting in the Eastern Christian tradition is “Christ is
Risen,” to which the faithful respond: “He is truly risen.” One day, there was a public debate between an
Orthodox Patriarch and an atheist about the Resurrection. The atheist went first, presenting a long discourse
on how Christ’s resurrection is scientifically and logically impossible. When it came time for the Patriarch to speak,
he stood before the assembled crowd and proclaimed, “Christ is Risen! Without missing a beat, the audience
responded, “He is truly Risen.” The people
had spoken, and the Patriarch sat down.
The fact is that the Resurrection
is the sine qua non of the Christian
faith. Without it, Christianity is
meaningless. Christ either rose from the
dead, or he did not. There’s no middle
ground. As Bishop Robert Barron puts it,
“It comes down to this: if Jesus was not
raised from death, Christianity is a fraud and a joke. But if he did rise from death, then
Christianity is the fullness of God’s revelation, and Jesus must be the
absolute center of our lives. There is
no third option.”
It
should be no surprise to the readers of this blog that I believe that Jesus
rose from the dead. While I’ve spent a
considerable amount of time weighing the evidence and studying the arguments
put forth by the Church, atheists and scientists, the most profound, the most
convincing evidence I have come across is the voice of the people. For nearly 2,000 years, billions of people
have believed that Christ is Risen, including my forebears, my parents, my grandparents
and generations of Meyers, Gallos and O’Boyles before them. In the end, faith is a matter of trust: trust in God; trust in ourselves and trust in
our teachers, mentors and role models.
They have spoken, and I believe that Christ is Risen. He is truly Risen!
No comments:
Post a Comment
God is listening . . . comment accordingly.