The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ was the completion of His mission and His life here on earth. From that point on the conclusion of our own earthly life now has new meaning; union with Jesus and life everlasting. Though He ascended into heaven, His mission is still active through us because we all have a part to play in spreading the faith throughout our lives. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ, second person of the Holy Trinity, spotless Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, God Incarnate, overcame death; which was the consequence of mankind’s sin. Easter Sunday; therefore, represents the victory of good over evil, life over death:
“Death is swallowed up in His Victory. Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?”(I Cor.15-55).
The Easter Resurrection also means picking up the “Cross of Christ,” an invitation of conversion to the Christian faith, repentance of our sins, a call to love God and our neighbor while fighting for our own salvation by entering heaven through the”Narrow Gate.”(Matt 7:13, Luke 13:24). Jesus’s Resurrection shows us that physical death is not the end but the beginning of life with God who is outside the limitations of time and has already defeated death. Only those who understand and accept this truth and live accordingly will experience the eternal happiness of our heavenly destiny: a promising and indescribable bliss.
The Easter Resurrection also tells us that God lives in the hearts of all of us in the space-time of earthly life. A church may be torn down and desecrated, believers may be sent to an early grave, human knowledge may try to replace the truths of Divine Revelation about the Word of God and His existence, but God is still here. God lives. Many an atheist who proclaimed:”God is dead” are themselves resting (at least we hope they are resting) in their graves. God lives in objective reality, and He lives in our hearts and in the hearts of our families and children – in and outside of their mothers’ wombs. Easter Sunday is witness to this two thousand year-old doctrine of the Church. Atheism, once the modern-day power tool of Satan and his Anti-Christ, can never quite finish the job of destroying God and His followers.
On Easter Sunday, the tomb of the Risen Christ became empty in order to fill the hearts of humanity with renewed hope of eternal salvation:
“Do not conform yourselves to this age but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and pleasing and perfect.”(Romans.12:2).
While Jesus’s Resurrection opened the gates of heaven to mankind, our task is the same as it was for the first Apostles and Disciples; Jesus said: “. . . go and make disciples of all nations.”(Matt..28.16). This means that our work today is a work of conversion and struggling for the faith. The Christian faithful are still tasked with winning souls for Christ by showing them “The way, the truth and the life.”(Jn.14:6). The Christian faithful are still tasked with spreading the ‘Good News’ and the timeless teaching on the evil of abortion, the sanctity of the family, the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah and the reality of eternal damnation for those who don’t repent.
Regardless of the endless attacks on the faith, and the countless sufferings people are faced with, the Easter Resurrection promises us an inner peace that no disturbance, material or spiritual, can destroy. We call out to everyone:”come and hear, see and share the Good News of the Gospel with us. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of God, let Himself be “nailed to a tree”(Acts, Peter-1, and 2), and in doing so we would once again be reconciled with God our Creator. This will be as long as we accept His Divine Truth, wisdom, purity, understanding, and intelligence; true intelligence, because now we can posses human knowledge combined with God’s grace which leads to wisdom.
Only Jesus, the innocent victim, could, through His Glorious Resurrection, take the ‘sins of the world’ upon Himself, raising from the dead to testify that only He is truly God and was also truly man (in every way except sin), who restored the elect to eternal life. He tasted the bitter ashes of death only to rise again and thereby defeat death, Satan, the world, and all the ‘little satans” who work tirelessly to separate man from God throughout the ages. We of the Knights of Columbus will constantly work in theory and practice to carry out our duty to proclaim the work and Word of God!
HAPPY EASTER
Wendell Jeanpierre Lecturer, April, 2022
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