Christ is Alive

The fact that our faith community here and everywhere has gathered together to celebrate Easter is not because of our successful pastoral plans and projects, but because Jesus is alive. By the Holy Spirit, Jesus has called us, mobilized and animated us by instilling, implanting, and nurturing in us the seed of faith to believe in his resurrection, which is why we celebrate Easter with hope.

“Christ is alive! We need to keep reminding ourselves of this, because we can risk seeing Jesus Christ simply as a fine model from the distant past, as a memory, as someone who saved us two thousand years ago. But that would be of no use to us: it would leave us unchanged, it would not set us free. The one who fills us with his grace, the one who liberates us, transforms us, heals and consoles us is someone fully alive. He is the Christ, risen from the dead, filled with supernatural life and energy, and robed in boundless light. Amen!” (Christus Vivit No. 124).

‘Why look among the dead for someone who is alive? He is not in the tomb, he has risen. Remember what he told us when he was still in Galilee: that the Son of Man had to be handed over into the power of sinful men and be crucified, and rise again on the third day?’ (Luke 24:1–12). According to St. Luke, the resurrection of Jesus is first reported by the women. They were the first people to hear about the resurrection—that death was not the final destination of the life of Jesus, but life was. These women reported their witness to the Eleven Apostles, who were amazed. In the book of the Acts of the Apostles, Peter addressed Cornelius and his family, saying: ‘You must have heard about Jesus of Nazareth and how he began in Galilee. God had anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and because God was with him, Jesus went about doing good and curing all who had fallen into the power of the devil. Now I, and those with me, can witness to everything he did throughout the countryside of Judaea and in Jerusalem itself: and also to the fact that they killed him by hanging him on a tree. Yet three days afterwards God raised him to life and allowed him to be seen, not by the whole people but only by certain witnesses God had chosen beforehand. Now we are those witnesses—we have eaten and drunk with him after his resurrection from the dead—and he has ordered us to proclaim this to his people’ (Acts 10:34, 37–43).

Finally, the Opening Prayer of the Easter Mass reminds us: ‘The Only Begotten Son of God has conquered death and unlocked for us the path to eternity.’ In Christ, the hope of blessed resurrection has dawned, so that those saddened by the certainty of dying might be consoled by the promise of immortality to come. For those who belong to the Lord, life is changed, not ended. When our earthly dwellings turn to dust, an eternal dwelling is prepared for us in heaven. For Christ has promised us, “I am the resurrection and the life. They who believe in me will live, even though they die. And everyone who lives and believes in me will never die” (Jn 11:25–26).

Fr. Tien Cao