Resurrection

Deus, in adjutorium meum intende. Domine, ad adjuvandum me festina.
O God, come to my assistance. O Lord, make haste to help me.

Sigh! Well, here I am, another year older and wondering why I'm still here. Knowing the longevity of most of the relatives on my paternal side, I could be around for quite awhile yet. 

I have a small paperback of  "Collected Articles of Fr. James B. Buckley," a wonderful spiritual advisor. I was privileged to attend one of his retreats a few years ago, based on St. Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises.  Five days of silent meditation and prayer, Holy Mass and lectures gave me much insight into the interior life of the soul. 

Father Buckley is a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, a society of priests dedicated to the traditional form of the Mass, Sacraments and teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.  The articles in the book are taken from columns he has written in the monthly newsletter of the Fraternity.

Reflecting upon my now 81 years, the end of life looms large in my thinking.  I opened the book to the article on Resurrection, and decided it was a good one to share on this day.  If one has doubts about the Resurrection of Christ, what is expressed here, much historical, really should lessen, if not erase, those doubts. It was in the April, 2001 edition of the Fraternity newsletter.  I share the entire short article here.

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   Just as there is sufficient but not compelling evidence to prove the existence of God, so also is there sufficient but not compelling evidence to prove the Resurrection of Christ. If the evidence were compelling, it would elminate even imprudent doubts and would, therefore, make faith unnecessary. Though not commpelling, the evidence for the Resurrection is nevertheless overwhelming.

   Even if there were no Gospels, men can still be certain that the body of Christ which had been buried disappeared from the tomb. If our Lord's body had remained in the tomb, any claim of His Resurrection would never have been made. It is beyond doubt, however, that the first ones to believe in the Resurrection were Jews living in Jerusalem, the place of Christ's death and burial. It is known from extra scriptural sources, moreover, that there was a Christian community in Jerusalem from the very beginning and that this community in A.D. 66 fled to Pella to escape the cataclysm of the Jewish War. How could these people possibly profess that Christ rose from the dead unless His tomb was empty.

   Even if there were no Gospels, the tradition that the Apostles suffered martyrdom would still exist. Since they could have saved their lives had they not preached the Resurrection, their deaths cry out for an explanation. Lying is not the answer. A man may lie if he can gain something from it, but who will lie if he will be killed for it? Lying, moreover, is opposed to the very moral code the Apostles preached. It is equally incredible that all of them suffered from delusion. Why, then, did they preach the Resurrection?

   At this point we can remind ourselves that we do have the Gospels which provide us with historical information about Christ and the Apostles. Are these writings worthy of belief? They are written by men whose knowledge of Palestine before the destruction of Jerusalem has been acknowledged as accurate by modern scholars. Two of the four authors were Apostles who witnessed most of what they narrated. A third, Mark, because he was a disciple of Peter had an eyewitness to rely upon. Luke, the remaining Evangelist, was a companion of Saint Paul and had access to information from the Church in Antioch and in Jerusalem. The opening verses of his Gospel attest that he had written sources at his disposal.

   Besides knowledge they demonstrate credibility. They record, for instance, the fear our Lord displayed during the agony even though this would present a stumbling block. Matthew and John even report their own cowardly desertion of Christ after boasting that they were ready to die for Him.

   The Catholic Church maintains that the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke were written before the destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70, while eyewitnesses were still living. Modern non-Catholic scholarship is moving toward the same conclusion.

   What prevents all men from accepting the fact of the Resurrection, which the four Gospel writers affirm, is not the credibility of the authors but prejudice against the possibility of miracles. For anyone who acknowledges that God exists, such a prejudice is nonsense. The Creator can interfere in His creation just as man, by simply hurling it into the sky, can interfere witht the natural tendency of a stone to sink down. But whether or not one acknowledges God's existence, he cannot deny the possibility of miracles by ignoring the physical evidence for miracles in today's world. The annual liquefaction of the blood of Saint Januarius, the tilma of our Lady of Guadalupe, the incorrupt body of Saint Bernadette Soubirous, and the incorrupt bodies of other saints as well as the Eucharistic miracle of Lanciano declare such prejucdice against miracles to be an unscientific absurdity.

   The overwhelming evidence for the Resurrection is rejected by men who are too proud to look at facts. Speaking of them, St. Augustine says: "...but if, as is true, the world has believed a few obscure, inconsiderable uneducated persons, who state and write that they witnessed it (the Resurrection), is it not unreasonable that a handful of wrong-headed men would oppose themselves to the creed of the whole world and refuse their belief?"  (The City of God, Book 22, Chapter 5).

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Those uneducated men of whom St. Augustine writes were the Apostles, chosen by Christ to lead his Church and to pass on His teachings after He left the earth - to spread the Gospel to all nations for the salvation of mankind. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit they were able to transcend their natures, to preach and to perform miracles and to die for their Faith.
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I think of the Resurrection these days, as I grow older - let's just say - old, and it gives me comfort  to think that one day, the soul of this bit of humanity will be taken into the presence of God, and that at the end of the world, the body will join the soul, perfected as only God can perfect, to live forever in the glory of His Presence and in a place of happiness, absent of suffering and sorrow, eternally to enjoy the beauty of the place prepared for it.  That is, if I do not lose God's friendship. I do believe that we work out our salvation, as St. Paul said he did his, "in fear and trembling."

Let everyone look to the Resurrection and realize that we are in the world, but not of the world. Our world is Heaven. It's attainment is the most important thing in our lives; and, as a good priest said recently in his sermon, we will not attain Heaven without prayer.

                                                      Ora pro me.   Pray for me.
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