Resurrection, if it means anything at all,
means Jesus being raised from his tomb:
not a metaphor, not a symbol,
not even a timeless truth concerning
the power of life over death,
but the returning to life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Resurrection, if it means anything at all,
means the eruption of life
through the hard crust of death
at a particular place and time,
a startling new fact in our world.
Resurrection, if it means anything at all,
involves a body that still bears the wounds
inflicted in a moment of time on the Son of God,
wounds that could be seen and touched
even in his glorified body,
wounds that he shows to us and says,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
means Jesus being raised from his tomb:
not a metaphor, not a symbol,
not even a timeless truth concerning
the power of life over death,
but the returning to life of Jesus of Nazareth.
Resurrection, if it means anything at all,
means the eruption of life
through the hard crust of death
at a particular place and time,
a startling new fact in our world.
Resurrection, if it means anything at all,
involves a body that still bears the wounds
inflicted in a moment of time on the Son of God,
wounds that could be seen and touched
even in his glorified body,
wounds that he shows to us and says,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
Resurrection, if it means anything at all,
means what happened to Jesus.
But that is not all it means.
Resurrection means what happened to Jesus
but it also means what happens to us.
Resurrection is the new life of Jesus
erupting into our lives,
erupting into our world,
remaking everything we think we know
about life and death
and how to navigate the world.
means what happened to Jesus.
But that is not all it means.
Resurrection means what happened to Jesus
but it also means what happens to us.
Resurrection is the new life of Jesus
erupting into our lives,
erupting into our world,
remaking everything we think we know
about life and death
and how to navigate the world.
And this is why resurrection scares us.
When the seer John,
living in exile on the Island of Patmos,
beheld the risen Jesus
he fell at his feet “as though dead.”
When Thomas heard of Jesus’ resurrection
he refused to believe without evidence,
not because he had a skeptical cast of mind,
but because he knew that if Jesus were risen
then everything was changed,
and he was not so sure that he wanted
to live in a world where the dead do not stay dead.
He was not so much doubting Thomas
as he was fearful Thomas:
fearful of what it would mean for life
if the certainty of death’s victory
were overturned.
When the seer John,
living in exile on the Island of Patmos,
beheld the risen Jesus
he fell at his feet “as though dead.”
When Thomas heard of Jesus’ resurrection
he refused to believe without evidence,
not because he had a skeptical cast of mind,
but because he knew that if Jesus were risen
then everything was changed,
and he was not so sure that he wanted
to live in a world where the dead do not stay dead.
He was not so much doubting Thomas
as he was fearful Thomas:
fearful of what it would mean for life
if the certainty of death’s victory
were overturned.
We may fear death,
but this is a fear that has been with us so long
that we have learned how to manage it,
how to cope with death’s finality.
Death sets a limit to our lives
and a limit to our loves,
and so we measure out our attachments,
we ration our compassion,
we hold our mercy in reserve,
doling it out only to the deserving.
but this is a fear that has been with us so long
that we have learned how to manage it,
how to cope with death’s finality.
Death sets a limit to our lives
and a limit to our loves,
and so we measure out our attachments,
we ration our compassion,
we hold our mercy in reserve,
doling it out only to the deserving.
But resurrection is beyond
our capacity to manage,
for it opens to us
the dizzying abyss of God’s love,
a love that gives us everything
and asks everything in return,
a love that sweeps us up in a torrent
flowing from wellsprings of mercy
that we could not imagine.
Resurrection calls us to love as Jesus loved,
and, well, we know how he ended up:
hung upon a cross.
Yet resurrection says that the way of Jesus,
the way that passes through the cross,
is the only true way to life.
our capacity to manage,
for it opens to us
the dizzying abyss of God’s love,
a love that gives us everything
and asks everything in return,
a love that sweeps us up in a torrent
flowing from wellsprings of mercy
that we could not imagine.
Resurrection calls us to love as Jesus loved,
and, well, we know how he ended up:
hung upon a cross.
Yet resurrection says that the way of Jesus,
the way that passes through the cross,
is the only true way to life.
What does resurrection look like?
If it looks like anything it looks like Jesus,
whose wounded body now pulses with life eternal.
But the light shed by the glory of Christ’s resurrection
also illuminates resurrection all around us.
If it looks like anything it looks like Jesus,
whose wounded body now pulses with life eternal.
But the light shed by the glory of Christ’s resurrection
also illuminates resurrection all around us.
It looks like Yolanda Tinajero,
whose brother was one of twenty-three people
killed five years ago at a Walmart in El Paso
by a self-proclaimed white nationalist.
This past Tuesday, at the victim impact statements
that are a part of the sentencing process,
she asked if she could approach
the convicted killer to embrace him,
“so you could feel my forgiveness, especially my loss.”
The judge, to everyone’s surprise, allowed this,
and as she held her brother’s killer he began,
for the first time in the proceedings,
to weep tears of remorse.
Mercy was offered not because the killer deserved it,
but because she needed to give it.
She showed him her wounds and said,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
That is what resurrection looks like.
whose brother was one of twenty-three people
killed five years ago at a Walmart in El Paso
by a self-proclaimed white nationalist.
This past Tuesday, at the victim impact statements
that are a part of the sentencing process,
she asked if she could approach
the convicted killer to embrace him,
“so you could feel my forgiveness, especially my loss.”
The judge, to everyone’s surprise, allowed this,
and as she held her brother’s killer he began,
for the first time in the proceedings,
to weep tears of remorse.
Mercy was offered not because the killer deserved it,
but because she needed to give it.
She showed him her wounds and said,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
That is what resurrection looks like.
It looks like the six couples
who spent this weekend with Deacon Andrew and me
preparing for the sacrament of matrimony,
preparing—in a world in which relationships
seem ever more transactional and disposable—
to offer themselves to each other
freely and without reservation,
in fruitful and permanent love,
to open themselves to the abyss of God’s love
by opening themselves to each other,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
showing each other their wounds and saying,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
That is what resurrection looks like.
who spent this weekend with Deacon Andrew and me
preparing for the sacrament of matrimony,
preparing—in a world in which relationships
seem ever more transactional and disposable—
to offer themselves to each other
freely and without reservation,
in fruitful and permanent love,
to open themselves to the abyss of God’s love
by opening themselves to each other,
for better, for worse,
for richer, for poorer,
showing each other their wounds and saying,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
That is what resurrection looks like.
It looks like Pope Francis,
his bodily strength exhausted,
going out one last time
to impart a blessing to the city and the world,
to share with us the glad tidings of Easter.
Too weak himself to speak,
his message was read out:
“The resurrection of Jesus is indeed
the basis of our hope.
For in the light of this event,
hope is no longer an illusion.
Thanks to Christ—
crucified and risen from the dead—
hope does not disappoint!
Spes non confundit! (cf. Rom 5:5).
That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge;
it does not delude, but empowers us.”
In his final hours
Francis showed to us his wounds, and said,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
That is what resurrection looks like.
his bodily strength exhausted,
going out one last time
to impart a blessing to the city and the world,
to share with us the glad tidings of Easter.
Too weak himself to speak,
his message was read out:
“The resurrection of Jesus is indeed
the basis of our hope.
For in the light of this event,
hope is no longer an illusion.
Thanks to Christ—
crucified and risen from the dead—
hope does not disappoint!
Spes non confundit! (cf. Rom 5:5).
That hope is not an evasion, but a challenge;
it does not delude, but empowers us.”
In his final hours
Francis showed to us his wounds, and said,
“do not be unbelieving, but believe.”
That is what resurrection looks like.
The light of the risen Christ reveals
resurrection all around us.
The voice of the risen Christ commands us:
“Do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last, the one who lives.
Once I was dead,
resurrection all around us.
The voice of the risen Christ commands us:
“Do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last, the one who lives.
Once I was dead,
but now I am alive forever and ever.
I hold the keys to death
I hold the keys to death
and the netherworld.”
The love of the risen Christ
raises us with him from the tomb
so that we may love as he loves,
without counting the cost,
without measuring mercy,
without fearing to fall,
for his mercy will bear us up.
So let our lives be
what resurrection looks like,
and let us pray that God,
who is merciful,
will have mercy on us all.
The love of the risen Christ
raises us with him from the tomb
so that we may love as he loves,
without counting the cost,
without measuring mercy,
without fearing to fall,
for his mercy will bear us up.
So let our lives be
what resurrection looks like,
and let us pray that God,
who is merciful,
will have mercy on us all.
