Being a fan of old movies, I recently came upon the classic, “Easter Parade,” the film where Fred Astaire walks Judy Garland down 5th Avenue singing, “In your Easter bonnet with all the frills upon it…” A film and a song that have nothing to do with the true meaning of Easter. Yet, the Gospel accounts of Easter recount, not a “parade” but a “procession,” a procession to the tomb of Jesus, first by Mary Magdalene and the women, then the apostles, John, and Peter. We have a movement toward the place of the dead that is suddenly transformed into the place of light and life, an event that haunts human logic.
The Resurrection of Jesus is the be-all and end-all of the Christian faith. It is the axis around which everything that is Christian turns, the very heart of all we believe and do. Without the resurrection none of it makes a bit of sense. St. Paul expressed it clearly: if Christ has not been raised, your faith is in vain.”
The Risen Lord is neither a ghost nor some kind of spirit. Were the resurrection accounts just a creative way of passing on to others a provocative memory, an inspiring feeling or wistful remembrance about Jesus, the way we would speak of a great historical figure? If that’s all the Church means by the resurrection of Jesus, way should we bother to be here today?
What is undeniably clear is that something has happened to Jesus—something so extraordinary that those who witnessed it had no suitable way to describe it. It is beyond our human capacity to understand this side of heaven. The Lord’s risen body is glorified, a trans-physical body that can be touched, that eats and drinks, but that also appears and disappears, unobstructed by barriers, like doors. The Lord Jesus lives and reigns with a bodily presence, though transformed, no longer conditioned by the limitations of space and time.
This is what rendered the women, the apostles, and others speechless, frightened, at first and then prepared to go the ends of the earth, enduring every hardship even to the point of martyrdom to proclaim the Gospel.
Today we rejoice in this central event of history which is the transformative event of our life. The Resurrection helps us see life and death in a new and hope-filled way. Easter changed the inevitability of death into the invincibility of life!
Still, there will be Good Fridays to face, times of darkness to endure, the bright sun may momentarily dim, the cross remains and the cross does not have the final word. The Lord’s resurrection is our warrant of hope for the future and the reason we can sing out: “This is the day the Lord has made, let us, rejoice and be glad.”
