Easter Hope
Jesus Christ is Truly Risen – Alleluia!
Every year we commemorate the passion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the same reasons we commemorate our loved ones who have passed away, yet there’s a huge difference. Jesus Christ is the greatest life ever lived because that one life overcame sin, suffering, victimhood, and death itself. Hope was not vanquished on a cross as the apostles feared, but born from a tomb as the result of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. When we commemorate our deceased loved ones, we do so precisely because Jesus was able to save them, if that is what they ultimately chose. When we reflect on Easter, we reflect on our own salvation born of a hope that didn’t exist prior to that first Easter.
The Resurrection of Jesus Christ is the birth of the virtue of hope. Prior to Our Lord’s Resurrection, heaven was not accessible to the dead: for Jesus “descended into hell” as the Apostles Creed states, to show the inhabitants of hell that he is Lord even of hell, and to open up heaven to those in Sheol who awaited the coming of the Messiah. If Jesus had not suffered death for the sins of man and rose from the dead, then we would not have been redeemed, and thus our immortal future would be something far short of heaven. Our life would ultimately be without hope, for hope needs a final, infinitely good end to give us something to hope for.
All selfishness, sadness, anger, and fear ultimately stems from a lack of hope in our own salvation: if we knew for sure that we were going to heaven (and what heaven truly is), would we be any of those things? On a more immediate level; we can lack hope that Jesus Christ can make something good come from something bad, His death is the ultimate example of that, for it redeemed us. When we see rampant impurity, broken families, godless schools, societal breakdown, an uncertain and frightening future; we can lose hope that things will ultimately be all right or even better than they are now. When spouses hurt each other, loneliness plagues the single, despair robs people of their peace and happiness, our health fails, etc., the future frightens us more than the present, stress and fear set in; do we see that ultimately united to Jesus Christ in his Resurrection is our resurrection too? Do we own the hope that Our Lord is giving us? Based on a blessed faith, born of hope in Jesus Christ; even this world will be redeemed one day, as well as each one of us sinners who love and serve Jesus Christ.
When Jesus was crucified, the apostles thought this was the end, and then Jesus rose from the dead and changed everything. Those same apostles, who thought their work was done on Good Friday, would die years later knowing that they had brought the Church to many nations. Jesus can and does work great things through bad things for those who hope in him – even in this pandemic. United to Him in his Resurrection, let us go forth in the certainty of hope that Jesus Christ has already won the final victory, and a new heaven and a new earth await those who serve Him.
Yours in the Risen Lord,
Fr. Thomas Nathe
