By Engr. Carlos V. Cornejo
“This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it.” (Psalm 118:24) The Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the be all and end all of the Christian faith. As Bishop Barron would say, “If Christ did not rise from the dead, all bishops, all priests and Church ministers should go home and get some other jobs. And all lay faithful should stop going to Church.” St. Paul would say the same thing, “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are of all people most to be pitied.” (1 Corinthians 15: 17, 19) Imagine sending missionaries to another country to evangelize for those who don’t know Christ yet, martyrs dying for Christ and we ordinary Christians praying, avoiding sin and offering up sacrifices every day to God and then when we die there is no reward or no life everlasting. Christianity would be the biggest and most cruel joke. As St. Paul would say we would be the most pitiful of all people. But Christ has risen, which is an indisputable proof of eternal life, and so everything we have worked and sacrificed for will be worthwhile.
Some of us follow the teachings and lessons of a dead person. Examples of this would be applying the lessons our national heroes have taught us on patriotism or love for one’s country. But for us Christians that would not be enough. We don’t want to follow someone who is dead. We want someone who is alive and could be with us in our lives or in our entire earthly journey. We want someone who accompanies us all the way to the very end of our lives and teaches us how to live the right and happy way and will give us eternal life in the next.
Christ rising from the dead means He is God’s full revelation to man or the full manifestation of God. Revelation means God telling us what life is all about in this world, what to do and what can we expect afterwards. Those are the three Theological Virtues of Faith, Hope and Love in a nutshell. Faith tells us what is the meaning and purpose of life. Charity or love tells us what to do or how to live our life. And Hope means we will receive a reward afterwards, if we practice faith and love, a kind of reward that is not only received in the next world but already begins in this life. A kind of reward or happiness that is a foretaste of the eternal happiness to come.
Another lesson that the Resurrection of Christ teaches us is that this is not the ultimate world we are currently living in. There is a life after death. As St. Paul would say, “For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city which is to come.” (Hebrews 13:14) We are just travelers or pilgrims in this world and we ought to live our lives in preparation for that better world to come.
And lastly the Resurrection teaches us that death will not have victory over us anymore if we are faithful to Christ. Because of the Resurrection St. Paul was able to mock death saying, “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting? (1 Corinthians 15:55) Death is the ultimate suffering of man because man loses everything he has in this world, both things and people that he loves when he dies. Death makes life meaningless if there is no life after death because whatever we have worked and strived for in this world would amount to nothing in the end, and if we ourselves will just go back into nothingness. But deep in our hearts we have that longing to live forever and the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ is the answer to that longing.
