This Tangible Passion

Easter Sunday is the most important Sunday in the Christian calendar. It is easy to see the resurrection as just about a miraculous event that happened to Jesus long ago, a promise that ensures we go to heaven. But the resurrection is about far more than this. It’s about the promise of God’s life being available to us both now and forever. It is a call for us to follow Christ by becoming life-givers and agents of resurrection in our families, communities and our world. What an inspiring challenge this is for us today!

It’s easy to make the resurrection an intellectual exercise that focuses on details, doubts and questions of evidence. Or to see it as a belief that applies only to Christians. But, as the readings today show, the resurrection is symbolic for what should be happening in our lives. This is even more true at this point in history, with a pandemic sweeping the world.

The resurrection asks that we allow God’s life to break in and free us from all the little deaths that seek to control our lives. Then, as those who have experienced life, we are called to bring life to the places in our world where death is at work.

The resurrection teaches us that nothing is impossible, that hope need not be extinguished, that life can burst forth unexpectedly and that love is never conquered.