Homilies

Back to Homilies menu

            The tradition of Christ’s resurrection originates in a single Greek word: ophthe — “he appeared,”  or “he was seen” (1 Corinthians 15:5).  The uncanny experience of the Lord’s appearance after his crucifixion was interpreted in terms of the Jewish belief in the resurrection of the dead (Daniel 12:2).  As today’s reading makes completely clear, the resurrection of the dead is quite different, conceptually, from the immortality of the soul.  Jesus is at pains to demonstrate to his disciples that he is not a disembodied spirit, and the bodily nature of the resurrection is the reason why the Russian Orthodox Church still prohibits cremation: if the body is destroyed, resurrection of the body seems impossible.
            Christ’s resurrection is the exemplar of our own resurrection.  Paul cites the former as proof of the latter: “If Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?”  (1 Corinthians 15:12).  But whereas Paul argued that Christ’s resurrection made the resurrection of the dead necessary, his opponents seem to have believed that it made it superfluous.  In either case, the two are closely interconnected. 
            In an age of rationalism, resurrection of the body, whether of Christ’s or of anyone elses, is regarded as a strict impossibility, and his resurrection has therefore been interpreted to mean either that “Jesus’ cause goes on”  or that “Christ is risen in the kerygma.” 
            In the story of the raising of Lazarus Martha’s Jewish belief that her brother will rise again in the resurrection of the last day (John 11:24) is not repudiated, but Jesus counters it with the solemn pronouncement, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he died, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die” (v. 26).  Martha embraces this possibility as she confesses, “I believe that you are the Christ, the Son of God, who is coming into the world” (v. 27). 
            An ancient inscription reads, “Death comes not as a curse, but as a blessing to men.”  This is a mystery which all the great religions have grasped, though they express it in different ways.  Rebirth is understood as resurrection in Christianity, as reincarnation in Hinduism, as the transmigration of souls in Buddhism.  Finally, in the eucharist we experience rebirth not by passing through death ourselves but by participating in a rite which represents sacramentally the death and resurrection of Christ.                   

April 26, 2009

back to top