The Glorious Resurrection of The Lord
By Fr. George El-Andari
Easter is the Holy day of all Holy days; it is the Resurrection of the body of our Lord and Savior from the dead. It is victory over death.
The following Hymn summarizes all we need to know about the Resurrection: “Christ has risen from the dead; He trampled death by death; He gave life to those who were dead by His Resurrection; He overcame death and brought everlasting life to the living and the dead. This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad.” From a non-Christian perspective, resurrection can mean rising again into life or prominence. It can also mean revival such as restoration to life, consciousness, etc. Hence, it is a phenomenon. It should be pointed out that the resurgence/revival are done by someone else or something else causes it. |
In God's love, Resurrection is a pivotal point in the Christian life. It is the essence of His love to humans whom He created in His image. It is however, a "Mystery of Faith" that He asked us to do in memory of him. We live it and we must do so as often as we can. Resurrection is the centerpiece in both the Old and New Testament of the Scriptures. St. Paul wrote: “if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain, and your faith is in vain. We are even found to be misrepresenting God, because we testified of God that He raised Christ.” (1 Cor 15:14-15).
The Old Testament looks forward to the Resurrection as the ultimate goal of life for the chosen people, while the New Testament based all its purpose of existence on the Resurrection. The New Testament takes us back to God's original plan for all humanity, not just the chosen ones. Christ died, was buried and Resurrected for the glory of His body and for the salvation of all who live according to His Word.
The Old Testament looks forward to the Resurrection as the ultimate goal of life for the chosen people, while the New Testament based all its purpose of existence on the Resurrection. The New Testament takes us back to God's original plan for all humanity, not just the chosen ones. Christ died, was buried and Resurrected for the glory of His body and for the salvation of all who live according to His Word.
Resurrection in the Old Testament.
II Macc, “These I have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them: because I hope to receive them again from Him.”
Daniel 12, “Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always.”
Samuel 7, Nathan spoke to David about his vision which was about Christ, not about David "who shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever."
Isaiah 25 and 26 said the Lord of hosts “shall cast down death headlong forever.” “Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again.” and “the earth shall disclose her blood and shall cover her slain no more.”
Job 19, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh, I shall see God. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; this hope is laid up in my bosom.”
Resurrection in the New Testament.
Matthew 28: The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go … tell his disciples, He has been raised from the dead … going before you to Galilee; there you will see him ...”
Mark 16: “… Who will roll back the stone for us … they saw that the stone had been rolled back ... On entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side ... He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here … go and tell his disciples and Peter, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.”
Luke 24: Jesus reminded them of His words … before His death "that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And He said to them, thus, it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day."
John 20: at the tomb, Jesus said to Mary Magdala, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her... Then Jesus appeared to his disciples and ... said to them “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.”
Paul, 1 Corinthians: Paul reminded them of the gospel, saying, "Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain ... that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures ... that He appeared to Cephas ... to the Twelve ... to more than five hundred brothers at once ... to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, He appeared to me. St. Paul then stressed that the Resurrection is the corner stone of our faith, without it, all is in vain. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised ... Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all."
Traditions:
Traditions are witnesses of Christ from His disciples and from all the ones listed above as true witnesses of His death and Resurrection. They are hen passed on to new generations as community rituals through word of mouth and the Church. After 2000 years across the globe with billions of faithful, traditions since the early Church have been carried faithfully with the clear teaching of the Scriptures. These traditions, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, became the cornerstone in the Christian faith and the Church’s teachings. Pope Benedict XVI writes that the traditions St. Paul keeps referring to are the fount from which he draws. St. Paul's Christology never undermined his faithfulness to tradition. The kerygma of the apostles always takes precedence over the way in which Paul personally re-elaborated it. Theologians and preachers do not create new visions; rather, they are at the service of the truth, the real facts about Christ, the cross and the Resurrection.
Since day one, Christians lived by the traditions according to the Word of God, they prayed the Lord’s prayer, they remembered Him by celebrating what He asked of them. Then the creed ... They recited the psalms and developed Hymns that highlight their faith and their way of talking to the Lord and His mother. These traditions ingrained faith in the faithful and became tradition of traditions. As an example, the Creed recites accurately and the faithful maintain: "For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again, in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father."
The early Christians celebrated the Resurrection every Sunday. They did what He asked them to do for His remembrance, until He comes again. A few decades after death, the early fathers started discussing a yearly remembrance of the Lord’s last week before his death: the suffering, sacrifices, crucifixion for our sins, finally crowned by the Resurrection of our Savior and His people. Easter was mentioned around 47-48 AD in St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. It is also said that Easter was discussed between St. Peter and the disciples in 36 or 37 AD. It is also mentioned in the book of Acts (~ 60-85 AD). Easter celebrations started in the second century. Finally, the Church united and agreed at the Nicaea council in 325 on worldwide uniformity for Easter. There were no disputes regarding the dogma of Easter, and the date remained undisputed until 1582 when it was found that leap years causes an 11-minute difference from l non-leap years. In response, Pope Gregory instituted the change to the more accurate Gregorian calendar than the previously used Julian calendar. The West followed the newly instituted timing for Easter, and the East maintained the previously used Julian-based timing. Both say the following: Easter falls on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the 21st of March, but one is based on the Julian while the other is based on the Gregorian calendars. There is one day increase every 131 years between the two calendars. The Churches recognize the need to recalibrate the date; there have been efforts and a proposal to realign it to the first Sunday after Nisan 10th. Nisan as in the Jewish calendar “Nisan.” They all agree with the timing spelled in Mathew 26: He was asked about where to eat Passover, which was the last Thursday supper. All the Churches agree, but they have not all signed up. It should also be remembered, as the early Christians did, that Easter is always after Passover and is present every day of our life in our heart.
This ceremony of Easter is the rite of peace. The Maronite church celebrates this most important traditional ceremony, the rite of peace, at the midnight liturgy, which is at the first hour of the day, and/or at Easter Sunday morning. During the Easter divine liturgy, the priest blesses the congregation with the cross, where every faithful approaches the altar and kisses the cross in the hand of the priest.
Pope Benedict XVI says that Paul, like the four Gospel writers, gives fundamental importance to Christ’s apparitions, which are a basic condition for faith in the risen Christ who left his tomb empty. These two facts are important: The tomb was empty, and Jesus truly appeared. Thus, a chain of tradition came into being that, through the testimony of the apostles and the first disciples, has been handed down to the generations that followed, including St. Paul who never saw Jesus while He was on earth but was directed by the Holy Spirit. In his first letter to the Romans, he refers to “the Gospel of God ... the Gospel about His Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead. It is therefore the Scriptures, the traditions and the guidance of the Holy Spirit that make us believe in the "Mystery of Faith" and that we are resurrected by the Resurrection of Jesus. It is up to us to live towards the type of eternal life which we will have after our Resurrection. Is it with our Lord or elsewhere?
Before the feast of the Resurrection, we enter a great fast, which is the forty-day fast that ends with Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, then Holy week, in order to reach the feast of Resurrection. We then enter the Resurrection time that takes us all the way to Pentecost. After the Resurrection Sunday, which is the first day, God is one for perfection. Then, seven days to New Sunday, where seven is a sacred number, it means new creation and new birth. Jesus continued to appear to his disciples and others for forty days from Resurrection Sunday to Ascension Thursday. Ten days later comes Pentecost, which makes fifty days from the Resurrection. According to Old Testament Jewish ritual, Pentecost is the Feast of the Meeting. The apostles were gathered in the upper room in Zion for this feast when the Holy Spirit descended upon them. This constituted the birth of the Church. It is also the time that the new law took hold, the law of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is when the Holy Spirit came upon the Church and the faithful so that they could carry His Word to the whole world. Pentecost is the Church’s feast. Let us ask ourselves:
How are we living up to our commitment to carry His Word to the world?
How are we preparing for our Resurrection with Jesus? Are we preparing to be with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom?
How are we helping Him carry the cross every day, as He does for us every minute of every day?
Amen.
II Macc, “These I have from heaven, but for the laws of God I now despise them: because I hope to receive them again from Him.”
Daniel 12, “Many of those that sleep in the dust of the earth, shall awake: some unto life everlasting, and others unto reproach, to see it always.”
Samuel 7, Nathan spoke to David about his vision which was about Christ, not about David "who shall build a house for my name, and I will establish his royal throne forever."
Isaiah 25 and 26 said the Lord of hosts “shall cast down death headlong forever.” “Thy dead men shall live, my slain shall rise again.” and “the earth shall disclose her blood and shall cover her slain no more.”
Job 19, “I know that my Redeemer lives, and on the last day I shall rise out of the earth. And I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh, I shall see God. Whom I myself shall see, and my eyes shall behold, and not another; this hope is laid up in my bosom.”
Resurrection in the New Testament.
Matthew 28: The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid! I know that you are seeking Jesus the crucified. He is not here, for he has been raised just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go … tell his disciples, He has been raised from the dead … going before you to Galilee; there you will see him ...”
Mark 16: “… Who will roll back the stone for us … they saw that the stone had been rolled back ... On entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side ... He said to them, “Do not be amazed! You seek Jesus of Nazareth, the crucified. He has been raised; he is not here … go and tell his disciples and Peter, He is going before you to Galilee; there you will see him, as he told you.”
Luke 24: Jesus reminded them of His words … before His death "that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and psalms must be fulfilled. Then He opened their minds to understand the scriptures. And He said to them, thus, it is written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day."
John 20: at the tomb, Jesus said to Mary Magdala, “Stop holding on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am going to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Mary of Magdala went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and what he told her... Then Jesus appeared to his disciples and ... said to them “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I send you.”
Paul, 1 Corinthians: Paul reminded them of the gospel, saying, "Through it you are also being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you, unless you believed in vain ... that He was buried; that He was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures ... that He appeared to Cephas ... to the Twelve ... to more than five hundred brothers at once ... to James, then to all the apostles. Last of all, as to one born abnormally, He appeared to me. St. Paul then stressed that the Resurrection is the corner stone of our faith, without it, all is in vain. If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised ... Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all."
Traditions:
Traditions are witnesses of Christ from His disciples and from all the ones listed above as true witnesses of His death and Resurrection. They are hen passed on to new generations as community rituals through word of mouth and the Church. After 2000 years across the globe with billions of faithful, traditions since the early Church have been carried faithfully with the clear teaching of the Scriptures. These traditions, with the Holy Spirit’s guidance, became the cornerstone in the Christian faith and the Church’s teachings. Pope Benedict XVI writes that the traditions St. Paul keeps referring to are the fount from which he draws. St. Paul's Christology never undermined his faithfulness to tradition. The kerygma of the apostles always takes precedence over the way in which Paul personally re-elaborated it. Theologians and preachers do not create new visions; rather, they are at the service of the truth, the real facts about Christ, the cross and the Resurrection.
Since day one, Christians lived by the traditions according to the Word of God, they prayed the Lord’s prayer, they remembered Him by celebrating what He asked of them. Then the creed ... They recited the psalms and developed Hymns that highlight their faith and their way of talking to the Lord and His mother. These traditions ingrained faith in the faithful and became tradition of traditions. As an example, the Creed recites accurately and the faithful maintain: "For our sake He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered, died, and was buried. On the third day He rose again, in fulfillment of the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father."
The early Christians celebrated the Resurrection every Sunday. They did what He asked them to do for His remembrance, until He comes again. A few decades after death, the early fathers started discussing a yearly remembrance of the Lord’s last week before his death: the suffering, sacrifices, crucifixion for our sins, finally crowned by the Resurrection of our Savior and His people. Easter was mentioned around 47-48 AD in St. Paul's Epistle to the Galatians. It is also said that Easter was discussed between St. Peter and the disciples in 36 or 37 AD. It is also mentioned in the book of Acts (~ 60-85 AD). Easter celebrations started in the second century. Finally, the Church united and agreed at the Nicaea council in 325 on worldwide uniformity for Easter. There were no disputes regarding the dogma of Easter, and the date remained undisputed until 1582 when it was found that leap years causes an 11-minute difference from l non-leap years. In response, Pope Gregory instituted the change to the more accurate Gregorian calendar than the previously used Julian calendar. The West followed the newly instituted timing for Easter, and the East maintained the previously used Julian-based timing. Both say the following: Easter falls on the first Sunday, after the first full moon, after the 21st of March, but one is based on the Julian while the other is based on the Gregorian calendars. There is one day increase every 131 years between the two calendars. The Churches recognize the need to recalibrate the date; there have been efforts and a proposal to realign it to the first Sunday after Nisan 10th. Nisan as in the Jewish calendar “Nisan.” They all agree with the timing spelled in Mathew 26: He was asked about where to eat Passover, which was the last Thursday supper. All the Churches agree, but they have not all signed up. It should also be remembered, as the early Christians did, that Easter is always after Passover and is present every day of our life in our heart.
This ceremony of Easter is the rite of peace. The Maronite church celebrates this most important traditional ceremony, the rite of peace, at the midnight liturgy, which is at the first hour of the day, and/or at Easter Sunday morning. During the Easter divine liturgy, the priest blesses the congregation with the cross, where every faithful approaches the altar and kisses the cross in the hand of the priest.
Pope Benedict XVI says that Paul, like the four Gospel writers, gives fundamental importance to Christ’s apparitions, which are a basic condition for faith in the risen Christ who left his tomb empty. These two facts are important: The tomb was empty, and Jesus truly appeared. Thus, a chain of tradition came into being that, through the testimony of the apostles and the first disciples, has been handed down to the generations that followed, including St. Paul who never saw Jesus while He was on earth but was directed by the Holy Spirit. In his first letter to the Romans, he refers to “the Gospel of God ... the Gospel about His Son, descended from David according to the flesh, but established as Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness through resurrection from the dead. It is therefore the Scriptures, the traditions and the guidance of the Holy Spirit that make us believe in the "Mystery of Faith" and that we are resurrected by the Resurrection of Jesus. It is up to us to live towards the type of eternal life which we will have after our Resurrection. Is it with our Lord or elsewhere?
Before the feast of the Resurrection, we enter a great fast, which is the forty-day fast that ends with Lazarus Saturday and Palm Sunday, then Holy week, in order to reach the feast of Resurrection. We then enter the Resurrection time that takes us all the way to Pentecost. After the Resurrection Sunday, which is the first day, God is one for perfection. Then, seven days to New Sunday, where seven is a sacred number, it means new creation and new birth. Jesus continued to appear to his disciples and others for forty days from Resurrection Sunday to Ascension Thursday. Ten days later comes Pentecost, which makes fifty days from the Resurrection. According to Old Testament Jewish ritual, Pentecost is the Feast of the Meeting. The apostles were gathered in the upper room in Zion for this feast when the Holy Spirit descended upon them. This constituted the birth of the Church. It is also the time that the new law took hold, the law of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is when the Holy Spirit came upon the Church and the faithful so that they could carry His Word to the whole world. Pentecost is the Church’s feast. Let us ask ourselves:
How are we living up to our commitment to carry His Word to the world?
How are we preparing for our Resurrection with Jesus? Are we preparing to be with Him in His Heavenly Kingdom?
How are we helping Him carry the cross every day, as He does for us every minute of every day?
Amen.