Faith in the Resurrection

Fr. Lawrence Jagdfeld, O.F.M., Administrator

The forty day journey of Lent is over, and we find ourselves standing on the threshold of a fifty day celebration of Easter joy. As we once again read the account of the empty tomb, we are once again asked to place our faith in Jesus. When the disciples ran to the tomb on that first Easter morning, they did not realize that history had been changed, that the human experience would never be the same. We live some two thousand plus years later. Easter challenges us to realize that very fact. History will no longer simply be written from the perspective the strong and powerful. Jesus allowed himself to be vanquished. He won by losing; he conquered through his surrender to death.

The irony is that even though we know the story and believe it, we also have a hard time accepting that the way to glory is through submission. Jesus obeyed his Father's will and gave his life over into the hands of those who believed that they controlled life. God proved them wrong. Through his obedience to the Father's will, Jesus allowed God to show that only God has control over life and death. Just as the chief priests, the Pharisees and the Roman Empire all believed they were in control, we believe that we are the masters of our fate. We still pursue victory through strength and power rather than through faith.

The first centuries in which the Christian faith took hold are marked by the Roman Empire's efforts to destroy it. They continued to embrace the notion that human beings had the power over life and death. They continued to execute believers, using their deaths as a grotesque kind of entertainment for the non-believers. Just as Jesus triumphed over their efforts, the Christian martyrs triumphed and faith in Jesus grew exponentially. That faith changed the world.

Christianity is no longer threatened by the sword in most places in our world. The tactics of the non-believer have changed. Rather than challenge the faith in the Circus Maximus with swords and lions and other instruments of torture, the non-believers are simply trying to relegate Christian faith to the sidelines of life by ignoring it, by letting a different culture take its place. However, the struggle is exactly the same. The non-believer is trying once again to assert his power, his control. The secular culture in which we live wants us forget the power of obedience to God's will. Like the Pharisees and chief priests and the Roman Empire, they ask rather that we ignore God's commandments, especially the first commandment, and to believe that we are in control, that we are the masters of the universe.

Easter proves them wrong. Faith continues to triumph over darkness; obedience wins over control.